Recently, discussions on period leaves and what they represent, in terms of equality for women, have been taking place on social media. While companies and individuals are entitled to their opinion, what can not be denied is that period pains, and the stigma around it, are both real and rampant.
And social and political activist and Supreme Court advocate, Kiruba Munuswamy, first hand experienced the stigma around period pains when she was fired for taking a period leave.
Kiruba took to Twitter to share her experience of working at a Supreme Court advocate’s office. She shared that she was fired for taking a day off on the first day of my period. She further added that while firing her, she was told that “This is why never recruit female juniors”.
She shared the information in her thread on #DalitWomanMenstrualExperience. Many people commented on it and talked about why it is unfair to not grant women leaves for periods:
It is important that we understand that period pain can be extremely debilitating. While individuals have the right to take that leave or not, to completely disregard the concept of period leaves is only further hampering gender equality.