73% women want companies to allow them take menstrual leave: Report

Around 73 per cent of women want companies to allow them to take menstrual leaves while 86.6 per cent are in favour of a menstrual-friendly workplace where hygiene methods and support infrastructure are available to women, according to a recent study.

The Menstrual Hygiene Survey 2023, conducted by Everteen, a feminine hygiene brand, also revealed that 71.7 per cent of the participants in the survey do not want the menstrual leaves to be paid, fearing that it may make companies reluctant to hire female employees.

Nearly 10,000 women in the age group of 18 to 35 years participated in the survey that was conducted in multiple cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Patna.

The survey report was released ahead of the global Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28.

"While 73 per cent of women want that companies should allow them to take menstrual leaves, 71.7 per cent of them do not want these to be paid and fear that it may make companies reluctant to hire female employees.

"Also, 86.6 per cent of women are in favour of the concept of menstrual friendly workplace where females are not hesitant in discussing the subject openly, and menstrual hygiene methods and support infrastructure is made available to women. Besides, 68.9 per cent of women have taken a leave of absence from work during menstrual periods," the survey stated.

Chirag Pan, CEO of PAN Healthcare said, "Corporates need to make it a priority to adopt practices for a menstrual-friendly workplace.

"Our survey shows that only 5.2 per cent of women feel comfortable discussing menstrual periods with their manager while 39.9 per cent of women do not prefer to discuss menstrual periods at the workplace, even with their female colleagues," he said.

Hariom Tyagi, the CEO of Wet and Dry Personal Care, said, "Like the 2022 survey, this year's study too showed that more than 50 per cent of the women are not able to sleep well during the first two days of their periods and 63.6 per cent women experienced moderate to severe menstrual cramps.

"Menstrual cramps emerged as the biggest concern for 30 per cent of women when going out during periods, trailing marginally behind the worry of changing sanitary pads, which was the top concern for 33 per cent of women," Tyagi said.