SCBA moves Supreme Court over ‘period shaming’ of MDU women workers

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has moved the top court seeking directions to the Centre and the Haryana Government to conduct a detailed inquiry into allegations that female sanitation workers at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Haryana, were asked to prove through pictures of their private parts that they were menstruating.

Terming it a “rampant violation of dignity, privacy and bodily autonomy” of women and girls in institutional settings across the country, SCBA has also sought guidelines to ensure that the right to health, dignity, bodily autonomy and privacy of women and girls are not violated when they are menstruating.

The SCBA petition referred to several news reports highlighting “period shaming” of menstruating women in educational institutions and government offices.

“...these incidents of women and girls being subjected to invasive and degrading checks in various institutional settings to check whether they are menstruating are in gross violation of their right to life, dignity, privacy and bodily integrity under Article 21 of the Constitution. Women workers, especially unorganised workers, have a right to decent working conditions which respect their biological differences and make room for adequate concessions such that they are not subject to humiliating checks when they are suffering from menstruation-related pain and discomfort,” SCBA submitted.

Referring to the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder case in Kolkata where the top court underscored the importance of safe work conditions in ensuring equality of opportunity, SCBA demanded nationwide guidelines to ensure that right to privacy and dignity of women workers was not violated.

The alleged incident took place on October 26, a few hours before Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh was scheduled to visit the campus.

In a complaint to varsity authorities, three female sanitation workers alleged that the two supervisors first forced them to clean the complex despite being told they were “unwell” and then asked them to prove they were menstruating. The women alleged that the supervisors told them they were following an Assistant Registrar’s orders.

An FIR has reportedly been registered under charges of criminal intimidation, sexual harassment, intent to insult the modesty of a woman and assault or use of criminal force on a woman and three people connected with MDU have been booked for sexual harassment in this regard.

The university has already suspended two male supervisors and an internal probe has been ordered into the incident.