Men included in Bengaluru startup’s paid menstrual leave initiative

Male employees will be encouraged to take a day off to be with their wives, the startup said.
Menstrual cup
Menstrual cup
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A new Bengaluru-based startup, Horses Stable, is offering paid leave to all of its menstruating women employees and also to men to support their spouses, an official said on Wednesday.

"This initiative allows women to take two days paid leave and offers an allowance of Rs 250 to help ease through the stress during that time," said an official at the start-up.

Not just women employees, male employees will also be given a day off to take care of and comfort their wives.

The startup has stated that it has taken up this initiative to be a more gender-responsive organisation and called it 'Nay to Yay'.

"There's no denial of the fact that women face severe pain and cramps during their menstrual cycle and for the female workforce it gets very arduous. The implementation of menstrual leave policy should not be termed as a gift. Our aim is to provide equal opportunities to the growth of both men and women," said Horses Productions co-founder Saloni Agarwal.

According to Agarwal, the startup aims to inspire other bigger organisations to adopt such employee-friendly policies in a step towards gender inclusivity.

"We are more than happy to implement this initiative in our company and by doing so we wish to inspire other organisations to adopt this policy as a step towards gender inclusivity. With this initiative, I hope to break the menstrual taboo," she said.

Horses Stable will not count the two-day leave as sick leave. However, the startup did not reveal the number of employees working with it.

"Since we are a startup we have a small team around 60 per cent are women and 40 per cent are men. Majority is women in our team," said an executive.

The startup’s website said that the organisation was focused on media productions for other startups in order to make pitches to prospective investors.

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