Beyond GST

**Karnika H Gaira

Introduction: The Illusion of Progress

Menstruation is a normal biological cycle, but in India, it remains shrouded in stigma. Women, from schoolgirls to seniors, are often treated as “impure” during their periods, rather than with the respect their hard work deserves. Even a celebrated policy like the 2018 GST exemption on sanitary napkins, is often hailed only for improving affordability. Yet tax relief alone masks far deeper problems of invisibility and neglect. No comprehensive law grants women formal rights to menstrual leave or facilities; instead, piecemeal policies at a few workplaces and campuses prevail. For example, only some companies – Zomato, Swiggy, Byju’s, Orient Electric, Khaitan & Co, etc. now offer paid “period leave”, and a handful of law universities have adopted menstrual-leave schemes. In effect, the burden falls to a woman’s employer or school whether she can rest or manage menstruation in dignity, rather than recognizing such needs as a matter of law or public policy.

This patchwork approach leaves most women unprotected. GST-free pads were important, but the illusion of progress must not obscure reality: fundamental rights and infrastructure around menstrual health are still missing. In this article, the author will first illustrate that menstruation is a public-health and human-rights issue, grounded in Article 21’s guarantees and the Directive Principles like Article 47. Further, the author will examine workplace policies, the absence of national “menstrual leave” laws, and recent corporate/state initiatives and rebut claims that menstrual leave would be stereotyping. Next, document the gaps in sanitation infrastructure, such as dirty or non-existent women’s toilets and disposal facilities, and link these to dignity and privacy under the constitution. And lastly, the silence of key laws and schemes on menstruation, compared to targeted programs for maternity or nutrition. Taxing sanitary products is just a first step; real dignity requires legal recognition, public budgets, and enforceable standards for menstrual health.

Menstruation as a Public Health and Human Rights Issue

Poor menstrual hygiene undermines girls’ education and women’s health at scale. One study found that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually in India at menarche, primarily due to a lack of clean toilets, sanitary supplies, and knowledge about menstruation. Girls often miss class during their periods from fear, pain, or embarrassment. Globally, the WHO stresses that menstrual hygiene is central to the health, well-being, and dignity of women and girls, and the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution emphasizing that menstrual hygiene is integral to the right to health and gender equality.

India’s constitution and laws create positive public-health obligations. The Directive Principles mandate that the State improve the standard of living and public health of its people. Courts have interpreted Article 21, the right to life and personal liberty, expansively to include the right to health, dignity, and proper living conditions. In Francis Coralie Mullin v. Delhi Admin. , the Supreme Court explicitly held that “life” under Article 21 means a life with human dignity and not mere existence. Subsequent rulings confirmed that access to safe drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, and a pollution-free environment are all facets of this constitutional right. Yet nowhere in India’s legal framework is menstruation singled out or given concrete protection.

The National Health Policy (NHP), 2017, and National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, rightly stress maternal and child welfare, but say almost nothing specific about menstrual health. For example, India’s flagship Menstrual Hygiene Scheme, launched in 2011 under the National Health Mission, only covers subsidized sanitary pads and awareness for rural adolescents. By contrast, the government has robust schemes like the Maternity Benefit Act, 2017 (extended paid maternity leave) and POSHAN Abhiyaan (maternal/child nutrition). This disparity suggests menstruation has not been treated as a fundamental public-health issue. In fact, international bodies explicitly recognize menstrual health as a human right. Dr Márta Vargha declared, “Menstrual health is a public health and human rights issue and urged universal access to menstrual products, safe disposal, and education. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other treaties (to which India is a party) compel the elimination of discrimination in healthcare, which logically encompasses menstrual needs. Yet on the ground, millions of women struggle every month without basic sanitation or respect.

Lack of Menstrual Leave: Dignity, Productivity, and Gendered Workspaces

Currently, no national law in India guarantees menstrual leave or accommodations for employees or students. Women’s right to take time off for period pain or hygiene must be negotiated with managers, if at all. This is changing only via piecemeal corporate policies and a few local initiatives. In 2020, Zomato became the highest-profile private firm to announce a paid “period leave” policy: women and transgender staff could take up to 10 days off per year during menstruation. Soon after, other companies followed suit. On the public side, a few state governments, notably Bihar, Odisha, Sikkim, and Kerala, permit menstrual leave for women in government jobs, and in January 2023, Kerala extended a formal menstrual leave to female college students in state universities. A handful of law schools also now allow monthly absences for menstruating students. 

Despite these advances, critics worry menstrual leave can “ghettoize” women by singling them out. Some feminists argue that it reinforces patriarchal stereotypes that women are weak or unprofessional when on their periods. But such criticisms overlook the real goal: dignity and bodily autonomy. Menstruation can involve debilitating pain, heavy bleeding, or illness for many women, forcing them to take drugs or even work in misery. Providing leave is akin to recognizing a medical need. Importantly, Article 21 protects personal liberty, bodily integrity, and self-determination. The Supreme Court in Puttaswamy  explicitly linked privacy and dignity to the “fundamental right to life”, and many courts have noted that Article 21 guarantees health, welfare, and humane conditions. From this perspective, offering menstrual leave is not a “special privilege” but a reasonable step to ensure women can manage their health with dignity at work or school.

A thoughtful model for menstrual leave embraces these principles. Menstrual leave should be voluntary and confidential, not forced or medically policed. It can be counted as medical or personal leave, without requiring intrusive doctor’s certificates, much like the self-certification schemes now used for other short sick leaves. In a work setting, similarly, women could notify HR of using menstrual leave without public explanation. This preserves autonomy while removing stigma.

In short, menstrual leave policies, when optional, respectful, and stigma-free, enhance women’s productivity and dignity rather than diminishing them. They recognize that a significant subset of women will experience painful or incapacitating periods each month, and Article 21 entitles them to health-conscious work environments. Tax exemptions and pad-distribution are useful, but without formal leave or flexibility, many working women simply endure pain or risk missing deadlines and wages in secret. A progressive legal framework should move beyond discretionary corporate schemes to enshrine at least minimal menstrual leave and accommodation as a matter of right.

Missing Toilets, Dirty Toilets: Infrastructure Disparities

Even when women do come to school or work, they often face unsafe and unhygienic sanitation. Many public and private spaces lack clean, private toilets equipped for menstrual hygiene. Dasra’s 2014 report found that 25% of Indian schools have no toilets at all. In the remainder, girls often avoid using the toilets during their periods. Although 60% of schools may provide a separate girls’ toilet, these were typically built without disposal bins, water for washing, or privacy measures, basically ignoring menstrual needs. 

The central government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan built millions of toilets to end open defecation, but menstrual aspects were an afterthought. Most public bathrooms, in train coaches, offices, or markets, have no sanitary-napkin disposal units, and sometimes no water inside, contrary to WHO guidelines that mandate water and disposal for menstrual management. These lacunae result in indignities: women report urinary tract infections from unsanitary toilets, emotional stress from changing in cramped spaces, and social shame at toilet lines.

Such deprivation implicates constitutional rights. Article 21’s guarantee of life and liberty encompasses a right to privacy and bodily integrity – under which access to clean and private sanitation falls. In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the Supreme Court explicitly recognized that bodily autonomy and privacy are integral to dignity under Article 21. Denying women a clean stall or force of privacy while menstruating effectively violates that dignity. A lack of basic menstrual facilities certainly undermines dignity and well-being. By India’s own legal principles, the State must remedy this gap.

At a minimum, every public school and workplace should have women-only toilets with running water, soap, and sanitary-napkin bins that are emptied regularly. Disposal units must be coupled with safe waste treatment (incinerators or sealed bins) to protect the environment. Swachh Bharat Phase II and the new Jal Jeevan Mission need to explicitly incorporate menstrual requirements in school and village toilets. Employers should install similar facilities in office buildings and factories. These infrastructure improvements can be mandated by law or regulation under the Building Code, Municipal Acts, or the Labour Codes. Without them, tax breaks or menstrual leaves are hollow; women will still struggle daily for privacy and hygiene, contrary to Article 21’s promise of dignity.

Legal and Policy Silence: Where Is Menstrual Health?

Despite the scale of the problem, Indian laws and schemes remain strangely silent on menstruation. The nearest thing to a central program is the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme under NHM, which since 2014 has provided six subsidized sanitary pads per month to rural adolescent girls. But this scheme is narrowly targeted (10–19-year-olds, rural), voluntary, and focuses only on pad distribution and awareness. There is no overarching “Menstrual Health Rights” law or flagship initiative that addresses access to products, toilets, education, and leave in one package. By contrast, the government devotes massive budgets to maternal health, whether it be Reproductive, Maternal & Child Health programs or child nutrition, reflecting a choice to treat pregnancy and childhood as priorities while menstruation remains a peripheral afterthought.

Major labour laws likewise ignore menstrual needs. The Factories Act, 1948, requires separate latrines and restrooms for women, but contains no provision for menstrual leave or even disposal bins. The recent Labour Codes do not address menstrual health at all. In practice, women shop-floor workers may have only a common toilet with no bin or privacy, and must still punch in/out regardless of pain. Universities and schools, including in government-run institutions, do not have any uniform code for menstrual hygiene – none of the education Acts or policies mandates pads or infrastructure. Even primary healthcare efforts overlook menstruation: aside from ASHAs handing out pads, community health centres rarely counsel girls on menstruation or measure the budget needed for menstrual supplies.

On the international front, India’s obligations highlight the gap. CEDAW and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals imply that adequate water, sanitation, and health for women are human rights. The WHO emphasizes that menstrual products should be affordable, even tax-free, and that WASH (water-sanitation-hygiene) programmes incorporate menstrual needs. Yet India has not codified these principles. The silence of law contrasts sharply with activism elsewhere: several countries now have national menstrual hygiene policies or include MHM in school-health legislation. In India, by comparison, surviving only on NGO reports and piecemeal practices is unacceptable for a constitutional democracy.

In sum, the absence of explicit legal recognition means that menstrual health is treated as a charity issue, not a right. Budgets for menstrual hygiene remain tiny, and data on girls missing school or women missing work for menstruation are scarce. If menstruation were a public crisis, the state would hardly be content with just a subsidized pad scheme and a tax waiver. What’s needed is a coherent Menstrual Health & Hygiene policy, backed by legislation or official guidelines, that covers education, product supply, sanitation infrastructure, and workplace accommodations in one framework.

Judicial Opportunity: Can Article 21 Rescue Menstrual Health?

Given the policy inertia, the courts may have a role. In the absence of legislative action, the judiciary can invoke Article 21 to press the government into positive action on menstrual issues.  Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan is an instructive analogy: faced with a lack of law on workplace sexual harassment, the Supreme Court laid down binding guidelines under Article 21’s guarantee of gender equality and dignity. Similarly, one could argue that lack of safe sanitation, discrimination or denial of leave for menstruating women amounts to a violation of their fundamental rights. A creative court could issue directions or guidelines, for example, ordering all public schools to upgrade WASH facilities for girls, or directing employers to provide confidential menstrual breaks, in a manner analogous to Vishaka or later environmental rulings under Article 32.

Beyond existing PILs, there is scope for broader judicial enforcement. Citizens or NGOs could file new PILs asking the courts to read menstrual health into Article 21’s ambit of dignity and health. The judiciary could then issue binding directions to include menstrual facilities in school building codes, to allocate budget for pads in public schools and prisons, and to require employers to accommodate menstrual leave confidentially. With Article 21’s reach, courts could even pressure the legislature to enact a national law if inertia continues. 

If the Supreme Court is proactive, it could transform menstruation from an unspoken problem into a matter of public policy. Just as courts have made the state accountable for basic education or environmental quality, they could hold the state to the promise of women’s health and dignity. Given the compelling textual and moral arguments, a strong judgment could establish that menstruation is not a matter of charity or myth but a right to be respected by law. In short, judicial intervention could break the silence and enforce the “publicness” of menstrual rights.

Conclusion: Recognising the Cycle

Beyond the relief of GST-free pads, India needs legal recognition of menstrual health as a right. Affordable products are merely symbolic if girls cannot access them in a clean school bathroom, or if working women must choose between honor and health. The constitution’s guarantees of life, dignity, and equality demand that menstruation be treated as a legitimate public concern. This requires more than slogans; it requires laws, budgets, and bureaucracy. The government should craft a comprehensive Menstrual Health and Hygiene Rights framework: making sanitary products free or subsidized in schools; mandating menstrual facilities in all public toilets; requiring workplace policies that respect menstrual needs; and empowering women to claim these entitlements under Article 21. Parliament and state legislatures must close the gaps in labour and education laws, while the judiciary stands ready to enforce these standards in the interim.

Menstruation may be a private experience, but the rights and protections that surround it must be public, universal, and enforceable. The time has come to turn the illusion of progress into real progress for half the population. Only when tax relief is matched by real rights and infrastructure can we truly say India has honoured menstrual health as the fundamental issue it is.

**Karnika H Gaira is a third-year law student at Hidayatullah National Law University

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily align with the views of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.