Lok Sabha Question No. 4963 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-01
Subject: Menstrual Leave for Working Women
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: M. K. Raghavan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED PARLIAMENT QUESTION 4963 TO BE ANSWERED ON 1 st  April, 2022

## MENSTRUAL LEAVE FOR WORKING WOMEN

## 4963: SHRI M.K. RAGHAVAN:

Will the Minister of HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state :

- (a) whether Government proposes to provide free menstrual leave mandatorily to working women and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has any scheme to provide free menstrual pads to students of the schools and colleges and if so , the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has any scheme for ensuring health of women during and after pregnancy and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to bring in one child norm for Government employees and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether government proposes to bring in stricter family planning measures to get welfare benefits in the country ; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)

- (a) & (b): Government does not propose to provide free menstrual leave mandatorily to working women. To ensure access to safe menstrual hygiene products by adolescent girls, the Government is implementing the Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years since 2011. The Scheme is supported by the National Health Mission through State Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) route based on the proposals received from the States. States/UTs.

The major objectives of the scheme are:

- i) To increase awareness among adolescent girls on Menstrual Hygiene
2. ii) To increase access to and use of high quality sanitary napkins by adolescent girls.
3. iii) To ensure safe disposal of sanitary napkins in an environmentally friendly manner.

Under the scheme a pack of sanitary napkins packs are provided to adolescent girls by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) at subsidized rate of Rs. 6 per pack. Government also provides budget to the States/UTs for Orientation of field level health workers and IEC activities for menstrual hygiene

- (c): Various steps taken by the Government of India, for ensuring health of women during and after pregnancy in all States/UTs, are as follows:
1. Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) provides assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services for every woman and newborn visiting public health facilities to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
2. Janani  Suraksha  Yojana  (JSY) ,  a  demand  promotion  and  conditional  cash  transfer scheme for promoting institutional delivery.
3. Under Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), every pregnant woman is entitled to free delivery, including caesarean section, in public health institutions along with the provision of free transport, diagnostics, medicines, other consumables & diet
4. Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) provides pregnant women a fixed  day,  free  of  cost  assured  and  quality  antenatal  check  up  by  a  Specialist/Medical Officer on the 9th day of every month.
5. LaQshya i mproves the quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatres to ensure  that  pregnant  women  receive  respectful  and  quality  care  during  delivery  and immediate post-partum.
6. Monthly  Village  Health,  Sanitation  and  Nutrition  Day  (VHSND) is  an  outreach activity at Anganwadi centers for provision of maternal and child care including nutrition in convergence with the ICDS.
7. Delivery Points -Over 25,000 'Delivery Points' across the country have been strengthened in terms of infrastructure, equipment, and trained manpower for provision of comprehensive RMNCAH+N services
8. MCP Card and Safe Motherhood Booklet are  distributed to the pregnant women for educating them on diet, rest, danger signs of pregnancy, benefit schemes and institutional deliveries.
9. Reproductive  and  child  health  (RCH)  portal is  a  name-based  web-enabled  tracking system for pregnant women and new born so as to ensure seamless provision of regular and complete services to them including antenatal care, institutional delivery and postnatal care.

(d)  to  (f):  The  Government  is  implementing  the  Family  Planning  programme  in  line  with  the policy  framework  of  population  stabilization  as  envisaged  in  the National Population  Policy (NPP-2000) .

Under the aegis of the policy, following progress has been achieved:

-  The Total  Fertility  Rate has  declined  from  2.7  to  2.0  from  2005-06(NFHS  3)  to 2019-21 (NFHS 5) which is below replacement level
-  The Crude Birth Rate has declined from 23.8 to 19.7 from 2005 to 2019 (SRS)
-  31 out of 36 States/UTs have already achieved the replacement level fertility of 2.1 or less.
-  The Modern  Contraceptive  usage has  increased  from  48.5%  (NFHS  3)to 56.5% (NFHS 5).

-  The Unmet Need for Family Planning has declined from 13.9% (NFHS 3) to 9.4% (NFHS 5).
-  The teenage birth rate has reduced from 16% (NFHS 3)  to 6.8% (NFHS 5)
-  The teenage marriage has reduced from 47.4% (NFHS 3)  to 23.3% (NFHS 5)

The Government implemented various schemes which have been instrumental in reining in the growth of population, few of which are mentioned below:

-  Mission  Parivar  Vikas implemented in  13  states  for  substantially  increasing  access  to contraceptives  and  family  planning  services.  These  states  are  seven  high  focus  states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Assam) and six North-Eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram).
-  Expanded Contraceptive Choices: The current contraceptive basket comprising Condoms, Combined oral contraceptive pills, Emergency contraceptive pills, Intra-uterine contraceptive  device  (IUCD)  and  Sterilization  is  expanded  with  inclusion  of  new contraceptives  namely  Injectable  contraceptive  (Antara  programme)  and  Centchroman (Chhaya).
-  Compensation scheme for sterilization acceptors which provides compensation for loss of wages to the beneficiary.
-  Post-partum Intrauterine contraceptive  device  (PPIUCD) services  are  provided  post delivery.
-  Scheme for Home Delivery of contraceptives by ASHAs at doorstep of beneficiaries.
-  Family  Planning  Logistics  Management  Information  System  (FP-LMIS): dedicated software  to  ensure  smooth  forecasting,  procurement  and  distribution  of  family  planning commodities across all the levels of health facilities.

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