Women working in permanent, casual, contract, probationary, part-time, and honorary roles have also been extended this provision.
Published Dec 11, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 11, 2025 | 8:11 AM
The eligibility for availing of the menstrual leave ends either on attaining menopause or on the employee attaining 52 years of age, whichever is earlier. Credit: iStock
Synopsis: Karnataka plans to enact the Women Well-Being Leave Act 2025, granting one paid menstrual leave monthly to women, transgender persons and girl students across private firms, government jobs and all educational institutions. The bill, to be tabled in Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, creates a dedicated authority, imposes ₹5,000 fines for denial and requires sanitary products in workplaces.
At a time when the Karnataka government’s menstrual leave policy is being legally challenged, the state government is preparing to table a bill providing one paid leave per month to all menstruating persons.
Although the government notified the new policy on 12 November, it ran into a court case after two private entities, the Bangalore Hotels Association and the management of Avirata AFL Connectivity Systems Limited, contested it, questioning the state’s authority to issue an executive order without a new legislation or an amendment to the existing Acts under which employees’ rights are governed.
While the Karnataka High Court had initially stayed the government notification, it recalled its order on Tuesday. The court on Wednesday said that a detailed hearing is needed before passing any orders, and adjourned the case till 20 January, 2026.
Meanwhile, while the final draft is yet to be publicised, the state is set to discuss a bill to this effect. An initial version of the bill, titled the Karnataka Women Well-Being Leave Bill, 2025, proposes a monthly menstrual leave, not just for women working in private establishments and under the services of the government, but also for menstruating persons in educational institutions.
The bill is likely to be discussed during the ongoing winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi.
The Bill extends the provision of menstrual leave to women, transgender persons, and girl students in educational institutions.
“Educational Institution” in the bill has been defined as any primary, secondary or higher secondary school, junior college/pre-university college, degree college, polytechnic, academy, university, institution deemed to be university, training centre, tuition/coaching centre and includes any other institution imparting education and vocational training, whether it is government, aided or unaided.
Women working in any private establishment, including a factory, a mine, or a plantation, will also be able to avail the leave. Apart from these, the bill details what counts as a private establishment: an establishment wherein persons are employed for the exhibition of equestrian, acrobatics and other performances, cinema and drama theatres, a shop, a motor transport, a concern doing the business or trade or offering service, a company, a firm, a cooperative or any other society an association, a trust, an agency, an institution.
Additionally, an organisation, a union, a hospital, a clinic, a diagnostic centre, a hotel, or such other establishment, whether registered or not, belonging to or concerning one or more individuals, families, body corporates, etc, also counts as a private establishment under the bill.
Women working in the departments of the state government, local self-governments, government corporations, government companies, government societies, PSUs, statutory boards and authorities and the similarly placed instrumentalities of the state can also avail the leave. Women working in permanent, casual, contract, probationary, part-time, and honorary roles have also been extended this provision.
For students, the bill proposes leave of absence from the educational institutions upto two days per month during her menstruation and consequently two percent relaxation in the attendance for menstrual issues.
The person may also choose to work from home, if she does not wish to avail of the menstrual leave and if the establishment under the aegis of the state government or the private establishment gives her the said facility.
“The eligibility for availing of the menstrual leave ends either on attaining menopause or on the employee attaining 52 years of age, whichever is earlier,” the Bill stated.
It doesn’t mandate a medical certificate and instead allows a leave-request or email sent to the concerned superior authority. “The availing of the menstrual leave should not be publicised by the higher officers unnecessarily,” the Bill stated.
The draft proposes the establishment of an authority to be known as “ Karnataka Women Well Being Authority ” for carrying out the purposes of this Act, which would be called Karnataka Women Well Being Leave Act, 2025.
The Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Women shall be the ex-officio Chairperson of the Authority. The Principal Secretaries of the Departments of Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Education and Labour shall be the Ex-officio Members of the Authority.
Two women activists from amongst the lawyers, doctors, trade unions, social service, who have been espousing the cause of women, shall be nominated by the state government as the members of the authority, the draft further states.
For the purpose of enforcement in private establishments, the bill proposes that the Labour Officer of each district be designated as Enforcement Officer. They must hold spot-inspections periodically and give instructions to the private establishments to give full effect to the provisions of the Act.
Importantly, the draft also proposes a penalty of upto ₹5,000, for whoever intentionally denies the menstrual leave to a menstruating person, ill-treats or discriminates a menstruating person for availing the menstrual leave or treats the menstruating person as an “untouchable”.
The employer, the management, and the government departments, have also been instructed to provide bio-degradable sanitary pads, menstrual cups, tampons, and panty-liners in separate rest rooms.
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
