Periods are a taboo topic in India, hushed up and regarded as shameful. ‘Oh, it’s that time of the month’, has become a casual statement, showing that stereotypes are much deep-rooted than originally precedented. Period leaves seem like a faraway possibility, as even broaching the topic is quite a task. Years spent hiding sanitary napkins in pockets, silencing others when any male walks by, are just mere examples of how a ‘developing’ society has several milestones to cross, and just how restricted the national mindset continues to be. 

 

Among the million stereotypes surrounding girls, perhaps the most outdated one has to be the label on menstruation. Ironically, within Indian households, women celebrate a girl’s first period, but not for the conventional reasons. A benchmark of a woman’s ability to produce children, menstruation signifies that it is time to discontinue their education and prepare them for a life of marriage, motherhood, and caretaking. In a constantly progressing world, why is it that women remain synonymous to households, and men assume responsibility as the sole providers? In several families, girls are prevented from entering temples, kitchens, or even sleeping within the house, as periods are considered ‘impure’ and ‘unholy’. The hypocrisy makes itself evident as these are the same households that celebrate a young girl’s menarche. Periods are not a ‘women’s issue’. Men and periods is a relationship that demands to be formed: fathers, sons, brothers, boyfriends shouldn’t be exempt from natural processes that concern them just as much as they concern women. The current generation has seen a considerable change in society’s gaze towards menstrual health, but the path ahead is rocky and long. The stigma begins at home, when a father becomes dubious about buying pads and tampons, and further propagated when mothers instruct their daughters to avoid discussing periods around their brothers or male friends. 

 

While women go through emotional and physical pain every month, men feel it is shameful and unethical to mention periods, leading people to believe it is sinful to do so. It’s about time that women stopped citing stomach aches to take half days off from work, or students stopped using headaches as an excuse to rush to the infirmary. Narrowing down upon the aspect of period leaves, offering employees a workday off during their cycle creates a positive environment in which women will feel confident enough to reclaim their bodies without embarrassment. The Bihar government has, since 1992, given its female employees two days of menstrual leave each month. In an open letter, Zomato addressed its female employees, integrating period leaves into their workplace to foster an atmosphere of ‘acceptance, truth, and trust’. Female employees are able to avail of 10 extra leaves in comparison to men, following the announcement from Zomato in August 2020. Zomato went the extra mile, including a clause on sexual harassment, preventing men from ridiculing women for being vocal about their pain. Is it that tough for other companies to follow suit? Expressing discomfort over something natural should not incite a feeling of discomfort within men, or allow anybody to see this as a weakness. 

The argument that taking a couple of days off from work, or school, during your period will put you in a position inferior to men and depict inability is highly flawed. Not an uncommon opinion, journalist Barkha Dutt penned an article in 2017, headlined I’m a Feminist. Giving Women an Off During Their Period Is a Stupid Idea which claimed that a menstrual leave would only “emphasize that there is something spectacularly otherworldly about a bodily function.” This is exactly why period leaves are a necessity — to tell men that periods are normal, monthly occurrences that may sometimes require medical attention. Menstrual leaves in schools are yet another issue altogether. More often than not, cramps are dismissed as mere stomachaches. Little to zero consideration is given to the emotional and physical baggage endured each month, a time that each woman dreads. A medical condition for which painkillers and injections may become a requirement cannot be deemed mild, especially when it comes to severe symptoms, not to mention the mood swings that PMS (Pre-Menstrual Syndrome) brings. In 2018, Marie Claire quoted John Guillebaud, professor of reproductive health at University College London, as saying that patients say dysmenorrhea, or period cramps, are “almost as bad as having a heart attack,” specifically for underweight girls or women with pre-existing conditions pertaining to their reproductive health.  

 

The Government Girls School in Tripunithura, Kerala has, since 1912, granted period leave to its students if they were menstruating during the annual exams and allowed them to take their tests later. Awareness of periods is seen to be associated with higher degrees of literacy, thus it is not surprising that Kerala was the only state to implement such a clause. School-going women suffer just as much as employees, suffering through one lesson after the other, weakly smiling at their male friends, waving their pain away, and calling it a stomachache. The embarrassment felt while struggling to explain to male teachers why a student cannot participate during PE, or has to carry their bag along to the washroom cannot be dismissed. 

 

Conclusively, the statement No Uterus, No Opinion becomes increasingly relevant, as it’s primarily a patriarchal society that dictates the sensitivity shown in workplaces or schools toward women. It’s time for companies, schools, and the government to step up and break this taboo: women have been suppressed long enough. The stigma begins at home, and men need to take responsibility for an issue that is frequently shunned. No one, except an individual who is menstruating, should be allowed to judge the degree of pain, how they deal with it, and how to express it. Women’s experiences aren’t up for debate. Period. 

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Written by Srijaa Chatterjee

Edited by Aarushi Bansal

Designed by Siya Mehra