Recently, Indian food delivery giant Zomato announced 10-day period leave for its employees and thus became one of the first large corporate organisations in India to make this policy change. “There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day,” Zomato’s chief executive, Deepinder Goyal, wrote in an email to the staff members.
The move garnered major attention as it received mixed reactions on social media. And while Zomato’s call was appreciated by many, it also became a reason for contention. Those bashing the idea raised concerns pertaining to what period leaves actually represent in terms of equal rights and how they will impact future hiring policies. Concerns were also raised about how these period leaves will actually deepen the stigma around the entire idea of menstruation. But what’s the ground reality here? Are period leaves actually a privilege? Or can granting period leaves actually add to the stigma that already exists around menstruation?
Activist and Supreme Court lawyer Kiruba Munuswamy’s personal experience, which she shared on social media, might help us with some insight on the topic. She recently took to Twitter to narrate her ordeal and recollected how she was fired from an advocate’s office for taking period leave. She wrote: “I was fired from a Supreme Court Advocate’s Office for taking a day off on the first day of my period. ”This is why never recruit female juniors”, he said.”
Further adding how she has to face the added stigma of being a Dalit woman, Kiruba wrote. “I can’t even sit in the courtrooms, as it’s disrespectful to ’Senior Male Lawyers.’”
Here’s her tweet:
I was fired from a Supreme Court Advocate’s Office for taking a day off on the first day of my period.
”This is why never recruit female juniors”, he said.
I can't even sit in the courtrooms, as it's disrespectful to ’Senior Male Lawyers’.#DalitWomanMenstrualExperience
— Kiruba Munusamy (@kirubamunusamy) August 13, 2020
Well, as it appears, declaring period leaves is just the first step towards fighting the stigma around menstruation. Clearly, there’s so much more that still needs to be done and so many prejudices that still need to be navigated.
And while we need to develop an entire system to ensure that while these leaves exist as office policies, they are actually granted to the employees sans any bias and prejudices. We certainly have a long way to go when it comes to destigmatising periods and granting periods leaves is certainly a step in the right direction.
Featured Image: Instagram
