‘Detrimental to women’: SC sceptical over menstrual leaves, asks centre to frame policy
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India's Supreme Court on Monday (Jul 8) asked the Narendra Modi government to frame a policy on menstrual leaves for women after consulting all stakeholders and states. While hearing a petition filed by lawyer Shailendra Tripathi, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said this was a matter of policy and courts don't need to intervene.
The bench then requested the secretary of the ministry of women and child development to deliberate upon the matter and come up with an answer after talking to all concerned parties and stakeholders.
'Detrimental' effect on women
The court observed that granting menstrual leaves to women may hurt their employment prospects as companies may not want to offer such leaves to their employees.
“How will the leave encourage more women to be part of the workforce," asked the court, adding granting menstrual leaves may result in women "being shunned from the workforce’...we do not want that.”
States free to form policy
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The apex court also made it clear that as the matter was being heard in the top court, states were free to form their own policies regarding menstrual leaves.
The states won’t be affected by the consultation process that the centre was expected to initiate soon.
Previous ruling on menstrual leaves
Earlier in February, the Supreme Court had rejected a similar plea asking for menstrual leaves for women employees and students.
The court cited the same reason to dismiss the plea, saying it was up to the government to frame a policy.
On the other hand, the centre has taken no stance on this issue yet. However, former women and child development (WCD) minister Smriti Irani said in December last year that menstruation was not a "handicap" and that it shouldn't warrant a specific policy for "paid leave".
"As a menstruating woman, menstruation and the menstruation cycle is not a handicap, it's a natural part of women's life journey…We should not propose issues where women are denied equal opportunities just because somebody who does not menstruate has a particular viewpoint towards menstruation," Irani had said.
Irani had earlier informed Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, that there was "no proposal under the consideration of the government to make provision for paid menstrual leave mandatory for all workplaces".
(With inputs from agencies)