Back in 2017 we printed an article with the headline: “Company in India gives women a day off if their period is painful.” As we reported, a Mumbai media agency known as Culture Machine “has announced that … employees could take the first day of their period as a paid day off if they experience pain or discomfort. Some reactions have been supportive — and some not.” The firm hoped to finish the stigma round open dialogue of menstruation. A second firm, GoZoop, adopted swimsuit.

But in circumstances the place corporations or international locations have instituted an identical coverage, some have expressed issues – for instance, would workers who ask for a time without work for a painful interval be thought to be much less dedicated or worthwhile workers? And some stated, why not simply use a sick day if wanted? We have been curious: Has the concept of a time without work for a painful interval continued at this firm and gained traction in different components of the world?

Culture Machine was acquired by one other company in 2019 that didn’t reply to queries concerning the interval time without work. But the second pioneering interval day firm GoZoop has continued the coverage. And they’re a part of a rising development.

Earlier this yr, Spain grew to become the primary European nation to institute a coverage on interval go away. “The days of … going to work in pain are over,” stated Spanish Equality Minister Irene Montero when the interval proposal was first introduced, granting 3 days off with a health care provider’s observe as corroboration and the potential for extending the go away to five days.

Similar insurance policies exist in different international locations, together with China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Zambia and Mexico.

As for India, many massive personal corporations have adopted an identical coverage since 2017, together with the meals supply providers Zomato and Swiggy and the training know-how firm Byju’s.

Another adoptee is BharatShakti, a Delhi-based media startup. In 2021, Neelanjana Banerjee, who heads content material creation, proposed a interval go away coverage in her group — and the boss stated sure. “I never felt safe in sharing this problem with any of my superiors [in previous organizations] — most of my superiors have been men,” she says. But, in her present job, she discovered that the corporate’s head was extra receptive.

Government our bodies have additionally endorsed the concept. In January 2023, the Indian state of Kerala granted menstrual leaves in all state-run universities. The similar month, a lawyer petitioned the nation’s highest court docket in search of menstrual go away for college students and staff throughout India. The court docket dismissed the petition, saying it was the job of the lawmakers to institute such a coverage and never the judiciary.

Two months later, a Parliamentary Committee urged lawmakers to contemplate enacting a legislation guaranteeing interval go away. The coverage “will have a positive impact on the female labor force participation rate in the formal sector and will help the gender dividend for inclusive and broad-based growth,” it stated.

The proportion of feminine workers in India is simply about 9%, lower than that of Pakistan’s female labor rate and roughly in line with Afghanistan’s earlier than the 2021 Taliban takeover.

“It is an issue of wellness, trusting employees and gender equity, and these impact all of us,” says Sudha Shashwati, a advisor psychologist and professor in Dehradun. “Paid menstrual leaves are a recognition that the workplace is not meant to be just for those who possess the male body.”

Nikhil Naren, an assistant professor at Jindal Global Law School who makes a speciality of competitors legislation, says it’s within the firm’s favor to grant interval go away. “I think women forced to work when their body is not keeping up have higher chances of affecting their productivity,” he says.

The coverage has its share of detractors now simply because it did after we first lined it. Back in 2017, journalist Barkha Dutt, wrote “First-day period leave may be dressed up as progressive, but it actually trivializes the feminist agenda for equal opportunity, especially in male-dominated professions,” in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. “Worse, it reaffirms that there is a biological determinism to the lives of women, a construct that women of my generation have spent years challenging.”

But the concept of a interval time without work has sturdy supporters. Chetna Negandhi, director of name communications for GoZoop, says: “When they announced this policy back in 2017, the first thought that came to my mind was that we were being heard and cared for. I can have the comfort and space I need on that day … without compromising my professional responsibilities.”