Odisha grants one-day paid menstrual leave for women in Independence Day announcement

PTC News Desk: A one-day menstruation leave policy for female employees in the state government and private sector was launched by the Odisha government on Thursday. During the district-level Independence Day celebrations in Cuttack, Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida made this announcement.

The policy, which goes into effect right away, permits female employees to take time off on the first or second day of their menstrual cycle in an effort to better promote the health and wellbeing of women.

This action is in line with the larger discussion about menstruation leave laws in India. Although three days of paid leave for women and transwomen during menstruation are proposed in the Right of Women to Menstrual Leave and Free Access to Menstrual Health Products measure, 2022, the measure has not yet been passed into law.

The Supreme Court recently emphasized that policy-making, not judicial intervention, should be the domain for addressing this issue by urging the central government to create a model policy on menstruation leave for female employees.

The only Indian states that have menstruation leave rules in place at the moment are Kerala and Bihar. In 1992, Bihar implemented a program that granted women with two days of paid leave per month for menstruation. Kerala expanded maternity leave for female students above the age of eighteen, to up to sixty days, and menstruation leave to all female students in universities and other institutions in 2023.

Menstrual leave policies have also been implemented by a few private Indian enterprises, such Zomato, which has been providing 10 days of paid period leave a year since 2020.

In spite of these steps, India does not have a national law governing menstruation leave. Prior attempts to pass relevant legislation have failed, including the Women’s Sexual, Reproductive, and Menstrual Rights Bill of 2018 and the Menstruation Benefits Bill of 2017. But the new policy from Odisha takes a big step in the right direction towards acknowledging and meeting the requirements of women in the workplace.