Period leaves policy undergo change as stigma continues to haunt women employees

In the light of such challenges faced by women, some companies have adopted a different approach in a bid to maximise coverage.

During the pandemic, the discourse around menstruation became mainstream and some startups introduced period leave. This was followed by bigger companies rolling out “unlimited leave” policies.

However, companies, irrespective of their headcount, have not reported any major changes in the trend of employees availing leave.

A similar pattern appears to be prevalent for period leave. Moneycontrol reached out to at least 10 companies including startups offering period leave. Very few responded to queries about the percentage of women availing of period leave and they cited figures that ranged from 25 percent to 83 percent.

“Nothing much has changed,” said a 25-year-old female employee in a Bengaluru-based plastic packaging company.

Her company does not offer menstrual leave but allows menstrual work from home. This became a norm only last year, after a slight increase in the number of women employees.

Still, taking period leave hasn’t become easy. Many female employees don’t take it because of concerns over work pressure or pressure from teammates or seniors, she said, adding that it's also due to the skewed gender ratio in the company and the absence of women in the management team.

In the light of such challenges faced by women, some companies have adopted a different approach in a bid to maximise coverage.

Policy tweaking

At Chingari, a video-sharing platform, over 25 percent of the female employees have taken menstrual leave since March 2023. The company has mandated that such leave is pre-approved.

“We have also seen that women prefer to work from home during their periods rather than take leave at all times,” said Sumit Ghosh, co-founder of Chingari.

Plum, a digital healthcare platform, noticed that 65 percent of its female employees took leave in the past four months. Zoheab Rehaman, head of people success at Plum, said that on the Slack channel called #timeout, women can freely call out ‘period leave’ versus ‘wellness leave’ and this has encouraged more menstruating people to take period leave.

When Orient Electric introduced menstrual leave, the electrical equipment manufacturer said it was thoughtful about sensitising the organisation.

“We introduced menstrual leave at Orient in December 2022 as part of our ongoing commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive work culture,” said Aditya Kohli, CHRO at Orient Electric, adding that almost 2/3rd of the women workforce have availed this leave.

In the case of female employees who report to male managers, HR leaders said they might find it difficult to spell out that they want to take the day off because they have menstrual cramps.

“There is also a case of internal conflict, where maybe women feel that availing of period leave may be perceived as a sign of weakness or reflects a lack of commitment which would then lead to unequal treatment,” said Abhishek Gupta, head of HR at crypto exchange platform ZebPay.

Gupta claims to have created a supportive environment where female colleagues can feel comfortable telling managers and HR that they want to take the day off.

“I can vouch for the fact that there are no uncomfortable discussions or explanations around availing period leave in any team or department,” he said.

What India Inc is missing

However, periods remain a taboo in Indian society and even in the corporate world. The hesitation to ask for leave citing menstruation, coupled with people raising their eyebrows when women return to office, are just a few examples that show how far workplace culture has to go in accepting menstruation as a simple biological process.

Nitin Wadhwa, a director at HR consultancy firm UKG India, said there is a significant level of “personal discomfort” experienced by women talking about periods, especially with the opposite gender.

“Is this just an individual mindset? The answer is no. The social stigma attached to the conversation around menstruation already puts women at a disadvantage, who find it hard to communicate these challenges to their managers and superiors to even request for leave,” Wadhwa told Moneycontrol.

Wadhwa highlighted that many businesses today are rushing to implement policies around period leave that can be presented as progressive, without correcting cultural and unconscious prejudices.

The other factor is that period leave is seen more as a “woke policy” rather than a recognition of the immense relief it brings for women.

“There is also a certain amount of fatigue that has set in for women-based/gender diversity initiatives, and many people view this policy as taking it too far,” said Ruchira Gokhale, head of consulting at Interweave Consulting, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm. “Not to mention the angst that accompanies any such policy – fear of misuse. And like maternity leave, this easily becomes another reason for resource-strapped managers to not want to hire women.”