An Indian Company Leads by Example, Offers Menstrual Leave

July 26, 2017: A Mumbai based media company, Culture Machine, is offering women the opportunity to take the menstrual leave on their first day of periods. The new policy is in the bid to become more female friendly.

The company which currently employs 75 women has also launched a campaign petitioning other companies to do the same. Recently, they released a video featuring some of its female employees talking about how they feel on the first day of periods.

The petition has so far been signed by over 23,000 people and delivered to India's Ministry of Woman and Child Development and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The company writes, "Everyone knows that men and women are biologically different. However, the real progress of the human civilisation can only occur when we understand and honour these differences".

"It's no secret that period cramps are the worst, but over the years women have had to show up at work and mask their pain with silly excuses," it goes on.

It further asks "Why should menstruation, for instance, an integral biological process that a woman goes through in her lifetime, be kept hidden?".

The company desires the rest of the women in India to have the same right as the women at Culture Machine.

Studies conducted by a professor of reproductive health at University College London, and published earlier this year revealed that period pain can be as painful as a heart attack.

Countries already having menstrual leave policies at the workplace are Japan, China, and Taiwan.

– prepared by Naina Mishra of Newsgram, Twitter @Nainamishr94