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SC seeks nationwide norms against period checks at workplaces
The court said that some states are sensitive to these issues, citing the example of Karnataka which has come out with a proposal to give one day leave every month to women workers as “period leave”
The Supreme Court on Friday set out to examine nationwide guidelines to ensure women and girls are not subjected to so-called period checks during menstruation at workplaces or educational institutions that go against the dignity and privacy of individuals.
The court order came on a petition filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) which demanded guidelines in light of a shocking incident in Haryana last month where three sanitation workers at the Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak were asked to provide photographs of their sanitary pads as evidence of menstruation when they complained of menstrual sickness.
“This just shows the mindset of these people,” said a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan which issued notice to the Centre and Haryana government and kept the matter for hearing on December 15.
The bench appreciated SCBA for raising the issue and said the Haryana incident could have been avoided if only the supervisors had been sensitive to the issue. “If someone says that because of this reason, heavy work could not be done, it could have been accepted and some other persons may have been deployed to carry out the work,” the bench said.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh who appeared along with other office bearers of SCBA , vice president Rahul Kaushik and secretary Pragya Baghel said that what happened in Haryana cannot be tolerated. The petition highlighted this was not a solitary incident. Citing news reports, the petition shared another instance from a Thane school in Maharashtra in July this year where girl students of Classes 5 to 10 were taken to the toilet and checked by women attendants to confirm who was menstruating after blood stains were found in the toilet.
The petition said, “These incidents of women and girls being subjected to invasive and degrading checks in various institutional settings to check whether they are menstruating is in gross violation of their right to life, dignity, privacy and bodily integrity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”
Singh said that he could come up with a list of suggested guidelines referring to inputs from several women lawyers led by senior advocates Aparna Bhat, Anitha Shenoy and Anindita Pujari who motivated the SCBA to file this petition.
The court said that some states are sensitive to these issues and cited the example of Karnataka which has come out with a proposal to give one day leave every month to women workers as “period leave”.
The court appreciated the SCBA for taking up this matter .
The Haryana government represented by the state additional advocate general (AAG) Lokesh Singhal informed the court that following the incident at the Rohtak university on October 26,, an inquiry was initiated and action has been taken against the two supervisors and the Assistant Registrar functioning as the administrative head of the university. Further, action has been initiated under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the contracting company to which the supervisors belonged has been directed to terminate their services.
The three workers submitted a written complaint to the university against the supervisors who verbally abused and humiliated the three women until they took photographs in the washroom.
