Mishelle knows the feeling well. The cramps that come without warning, mornings when she calculates whether she can physically attend the class. Most days, she pushes through, not because the pain isn't real, but because she has no other choice. Mishelle Linil is a student of the St Kuriakose College of Management and Science (Mahatma Gandhi University), which does not have a menstrual leave policy. There is no attendance relaxation or policy in place to acknowledge what she, and many others like her, go through every month.
“I would consider availing menstrual leaves, but I would appreciate it if there were people who would be with me and support me, rather than tease me,” Mishelle told TNM.
That sentence carries the weight of something larger because in Kerala, the policy Michelle is waiting for already exists. The state became the first in India to formally grant menstrual leave to university students in January 2023, when the Kerala government issued an order reducing the minimum attendance requirement for female students from 75% to 73% across all state-run higher education institutions.
It was a landmark move, one that followed a student-union-led push at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), which became the first university in the country to implement such a provision. And yet, three years later, access to this policy depends on which university a student goes to.
How it began
The story of menstrual leave in Kerala’s universities began not in a government chamber, but in a Students’ Union meeting at CUSAT in early 2023. Athulya Anil Nair, a law student at the university, recalled how the initiative took shape.
“The process of introducing the policy was remarkably smooth. The university administration, including the vice chancellor, registrar, and other officials, approached the proposal with considerable seriousness and openness. Rather than treating it as a purely administrative matter, they engaged with the students in meaningful discussions on the practical challenges as well,” she said.
What CUSAT came up with was attendance relaxation, rather than a formal, documented leave process, which would have required students to declare when they were menstruating.
Women students received a 2% relaxation in their attendance each semester, bringing the threshold from 75% to 73%. No application, disclosure, or formal leave application was required.
“Students are not required to disclose when they are menstruating; the benefit is incorporated into the attendance framework itself, and this allows students to avail it without compromising their privacy," Athulya explained.
Diya, another student attending CUSAT, said, “I don't hesitate. The menstrual leave percentage is automatically added.”
This model of menstrual leave removed the most significant barrier: the discomfort of having to explain oneself.
Patchy implementation
When the Kerala government extended the policy statewide in March 2023, it was applauded as a watershed moment. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described it as an indication of his government’s commitment to gender justice. But the uniformity that the government order promised has not entirely materialised on the ground.
For Mishelle and Ayisha, students at institutions where the policy has not yet been implemented, the government order feels distant. Ayisha studies at a women-only college at Calicut University. There are no male peers to feel awkward around.
“I would avail it if there was a choice. Any concern would mainly be about missing classes, labs, or attendance,” Ayisha said.
The debate around menstrual leave in India has long been shadowed by a counterargument: that formalising period-based absence marks women as less reliable, more costly, and less hireable. It is an argument that several of the students have heard, and most reject it.
Ayisha frames it more directly. “Menstrual leave is health support, not a sign of reduced capability,” she said.
But CUSAT’s Athulya views it as a necessary stopgap, not an ideal solution. She acknowledges the concern but argues that it targets the wrong problem entirely.
“What concerns me more is that we often frame the debate around whether women should work or study through menstrual pain, rather than asking why the burden of managing that pain continues to fall almost entirely on them. We live in an era of gene therapy and neurotech gadgets. Against that backdrop, it is worth questioning why there has not been a comparable effort to develop widely accessible, effective, and low-risk solutions for menstrual pain, an issue that affects nearly half the population,” Athulya pointed out.
Menstrual leave in schools
If universities are still working out implementation, schools present an even more complex picture. Many school-going girls experience their first periods with little support, inadequate facilities, and no institutional acknowledgement of what they are going through.
The new V D Satheesan-led Congress government announced ‘Project Menstrual Dignity,’ introducing up to three days of menstrual leave every month for school students, with weekend catch-up classes proposed to ensure girls don't fall behind academically.
This initiative has already drawn criticism from several people. Women leaders from IUML and BJP too have raised privacy concerns, arguing that formalising menstrual leave could make girls’ cycle common knowledge among friends, families and schools, causing distress and shame rather than relief.
Whereas others have argued that the state is treating absence as the solution when the real problem is infrastructure, and it remains unaddressed.
"If a girl does not have access to a clean toilet, proper disposal facilities, sanitary products, or even a private space to manage her menstrual hygiene, then the problem is not merely one of attendance but of basic dignity and public health," Athulya said.
Yamini from Abdul Kalam Technical University, studying B.Tech EC, said, "Menstrual leave alone is not enough. Schools should first ensure access to clean and hygienic toilets, proper water facilities, sanitary pad dispensers, disposal systems, and menstrual health awareness programs."
The students are not against leave, but are against leave being used as a substitute for infrastructure that should have existed long before. Labour India Gurukulam Public School in Kottayam, Kerala, has already begun implementing period leaves for school students. But these remain isolated instances rather than a systematic change.
An unfinished promise
Three years after Kerala opened a path for menstrual leave, the promise remains partial.
While student unions and a few progressive campuses have quietly embedded relief into attendance rules, many colleges still lack clear rules, and schools face the harder problem of poor infrastructure.
If Kerala genuinely intends menstrual dignity as a principle rather than a headline, the next step is clear: policymakers will need to pair leave with enforceable guidelines, fund clean toilets and efficient waste disposal systems, and build monitoring mechanisms that can actually track whether the policy is reaching the students it was designed for.
This article was written by a student interning with TNM