Many women experience issues during their periods each month. The first day can be very challenging, with pain and discomfort making it difficult to sit or stand. Working women often struggle to handle this pain because taking leave every month is not always an option.
However, numerous firms recognise the difficulties that women encounter and provide one or two days of monthly leave so that they can relax at home.
Before International Women’s Day, the global corporation Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in India also took a significant step by implementing menstruation leave. This benefit will be available to the company’s 5,000 female employees.
Apart from L&T, there are many companies in India that provide menstruation leave from 2020. The first menstruation leave was introduced by the food delivery application Zomato.
Companies That Provide Menstruation Leave:
1. Zomato, an online meal delivery startup, has been providing menstruation leave to its female employees since 2020.
2. In a bid to combat stigma around menstruation, in 2020, following in Zomato’s footsteps, a Surat-based digital marketing company iVIPANAN said it would give 12 days of period leave per year to women employees.
3. Swiggy, an online food delivery startup, launched a two-day menstrual break for women in 2021.
4. BYJU’S will also begin offering one menstruation leave every month to its employees in 2021.
5. In December 2022, CK Birla Group’s unit, Orient Electric, implemented a menstrual leave policy.
6. In 2023, AU Small Finance Bank adopted a menstruation leave policy that provided female employees with one day of leave.
7. Hyderabad-based market research and strategic consulting start-up IndustryArc, has initiated a menstrual policy, which allows their women employees to take a day or two days paid off during the their menstruation.
8. Wet and Dry, A New Delhi-based feminine hygiene products maker Wet & Dry Personal Care started to allow its women employees to take two days off during their menstrual cycles.
9. In 2017 after Mumbai-based startup, Culture Machine, Malayalam media organisation Mathrubhumi allowed its women employees to stay at home on the first day of their menstrual cycle.
10. In July 2017, another company Magzter followed the footstep of Culture Machine’s FOP leave policy.
11. Bengaluru-Based Startup Horses Stable News implemented a menstrual leave policy.
12. In 2018, a Kolkata-based digital media company called FlyMyBiz announced a New Year’s gift that almost every every working woman in the country wishes for and it was a paid period of leave.
On Friday (March 7, 2025), L&T announced menstruation leave every month.
According to reports, the company has a total workforce of 60,000 employees in which 5,000 are women. The policy excludes L&T’s non-construction and non-engineering operations, such as financial and technological services. These enterprises offer work-from-home and flexible work options, but the major L&T operations have an office-based working environment.
There are many states in India that provide a menstruation leave policy. Bihar implemented it in 1992, Kerala in 2023, and Sikkim and Odisha in 2024.
There are many other foreign countries that provide menstruation leave. Countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Zambia, Spain, Vietnam, and many others offer menstruation leave to their female employees.
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