Zomato’s Provision For ‘Period Leaves’? Know What’s Women's Opinion

Going forward, women at Zomato can avail up to 10 period leaves in a year. This also applies to transgender people working at Zomato.????‍♀️

Read more here – https://t.co/GmP5rLkaNL pic.twitter.com/5f8z9xP5zk — Zomato (@Zomato) August 8, 2020

Periods can be painful and messy, and it’s a public health issue no one really talks about. According to a 2012 study, 96 per cent of the female workforce  is employed in the informal sector, where staying home due to menstrual pain usually means losing a day’s wages or, worse, getting replaced. So it did seem like a step in the right direction when Zomato takes a new turn towards helping this issue.

What are the Period Problems?

• Menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea), Cramps
• Irregular periods
• Heavy Flow
• Unusual (abnormal) bleeding
• Missing periods (amenorrhea)
• Menstrual migraine

And lots of Cranky Mood Swings.

Period pain is very common: most girls and women have the pain of varying intensity at some point during their period. In 10 out of 100 women the pain is so bad that they're unable to carry out their usual daily activities on one to three days every month.

Why are we talking about periods in the workplace?

...because that’s where many of us spend most of our time! Unfortunately, our Periods doesn’t work around our busy work-life schedule and, depending on your symptoms and job role; this can present obstacles for many of us.

Menstruation affects everyone differently (no two periods or people are same) but the crux of the matter is that, it exists for most of us. It can affect us physically and mentally at times and enough to affect our work.

Zomato’s efforts to build a more inclusive work culture.

Zomato claims;

• to understand their job is to make sure that we make room for the biological needs, while not lowering the bar for the quality of our work and the impact to be created
• There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave. Women should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that they are on their period leave for the day
• They also acclaimed that:

“In case you face any unnecessary harassment, or distasteful comments from men or women about the fact that you applied for a period leave, or that you are vocal about it, please report them to speakup@zomato.com – our prevention of sexual harassment (POSH) team will quickly spring into action”

Women’s Opinion on period leaves

Check out women’s reaction when asked about period leaves:

This is an extremely dangerous precedent 2 set.Provide equal opportunities in appointments, promotions n pay structure. Providing holidays as period leaves will only work as a deterrence 2 employers in hiring women.I don’t think or support the idea tht women need period leaves.

— Madhubanti Chatterjee (@MadhubantiChat3) August 8, 2020

Great move! Hoping that the organisation will ensure that there is no bias (on hiring and advancement) as a result of this policy — Priya Karnik (@karnik_priya) August 8, 2020

Welcoming Decisions????????i hope this decision go as a step in comforting her most difficult days of month & shudn’t be used to judge the competency level,Many people will rant about Equality & All but only those women who work with such difficult pain will realize the value — shruti sharma ???????? (@MsShrutiSharma) August 8, 2020

People had all kinds of reactions to it. Period leaves have been a controversial subject as some might term this be favoring one gender.