MADURAI: The state government on Wednesday informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that it has formed a 13-member all-woman committee to examine the feasibility of framing a policy to grant paid menstrual leave for women employees in the government and private sectors.
Government counsel told a bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel that a G.O. constituting the committee was issued by the labour welfare department on September 18, 2026. Counsel made the submission during a hearing on a Public Interest Litigation filed by M Narmatha, a government lab technician from Madurai.
The government counsel requested the court to grant three months’ time for the committee to file its report, following which the bench directed the committee to submit a report by the next hearing on January 21, 2027.
Narmatha stated in her petition that she has come across many working women who come for treatment for severe menstrual cramps but turn up for work, despite immense pain, to perform as well as their male colleagues. Though other states, including Karnataka, Bihar and Odisha had a menstrual leave policy, Tamil Nadu did not have one, she stated.
Failure to provide humane and gender-sensitive working conditions violates Article 42 of the Constitution, which mandates the state to ensure just and humane conditions of work, particularly for women, Narmatha said. She also opined that the existing leave framework, namely casual leave and sick leave, is inadequate, especially for women who suffer from painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea).
She clarified that she was not seeking judicial legislation or mandatory enforcement across all sectors but merely a direction to the state to consider her representation dated October 20, 2025, consult with stakeholders and frame suitable guidelines or policy