Outrage at India menstrual form

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Women civil servants in India have expressed shock at new appraisal rules which require them to reveal details of their menstrual cycles.

Under the new nationwide requirements, female officials also have to say when they last sought maternity leave.

Women civil servants say the questions are a gross invasion of privacy. One told the BBC she was "gobsmacked".

Annual appraisals and health checks are mandatory in India's civil service. The ministry was unavailable for comment.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6545115.stm

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I can see this could be a question that a doctor would ask in a general health check. But for it to be something on an official form that is recorded, and presumably available to some other employees, does seem an incredible intrusion.

[hogwyld]

1. Another invasion by male pigs

Probably so they can "properly" schedule their trysts while on the job....

[Turbineguy]

2. From the Aggie Sex Test

A menstrual cycle has three wheels (T/F). The people who thought this up must have passed that test.

What would be the point of such a thing when (as I understand it) many women are irregular?

[Warpy]

3. It is and it smacks of prurience on the part of some male boss

This is the kind of thing that should be discussed with an OB-Gyn during a visit. If it's abnormal, s/he makes a note of it in the patient's chart along with the treatment, if any.

It also sounds like they're trying to determine which women are going to become pregnant so they can fire them now.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Realtors and employers in this country used to be allowed to ask women all sorts...

of private questions.

It wasn't that long ago.

[donsu]

5. Indian women better fight back and keep their govt. out of their bodies

give the men an inch and they will move into your womb and begin telling you what you can and cannot do.

[KarenS]

6. well,,,, back in the bad old days,,,,, 1969

Part of the application form for a large company asked ~ 1. are you pregnant? 2. date of your last menstrual cycle. I was only 18 then and hugely embarrassed that I needed to answer these questions. It was indeed an intrusion.

[HereSince1628]

7. Companies trying to avoid maternity leaves?

I'm guessing so.
Welcome to the world of free-trade, where the CEO's compensation package is job 1.

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

9. This is what I never got about capitalism

or, at least objectivism. The whole Ayn Rand, Laissez-faire mentality. Isn't it supposed to be individualism? In the modern American iteration it seems to be individualism for a very select few, the rest of us subjugated to roles of subservience so the fore mentioned few can test the limits of self satisfaction and indulgence.

Those "Free Capitalists," who spout on about how wonderful it is to live in a land where anyone can achieve prosperity if they only work hard enough, are so full of shit they should have it beaten out of them.

[acmavm]

12. Yep. One tenth (1/10th) of the American people have the

right to privacy and property and whatever else goes along with the 'myth' of being an American citizen. The rest of us just have the right (and it's mandatory) to pay for that upper 10% 'rights'.

[HereSince1628]

15. Capitalism is a Ponzi scheme it benefits only the top of the pyramid

the majority are crushed by the weight of supporting everything on top.

[otherlander]

16. They broke their backs lifting Moloch to heaven.

[Turbineguy]

19. It's what laissez fair capitalism has in common

with Marxism. In theory, a good idea, in practice, impossible.

They both fail to account for human nature.

[1monster]

18. The correct answer to that question would be "MYOB" ... Using the

telephone key pad, the date would be 6-9-62...let them figure it out.

[Spinzonner]

8. The Rhythm Employment Method

[cliss]

10. This is not so strange.

In India, women are asked to not enter temples, when they are on their cycle. They are considered to be unclean at that time.

Also Yoga centers throughout India, will not allow women to do yoga exercises during that time of the month.

This is not new, but the concept of asking at the work place seems new.

[durrrty libby]

11. That is all outrageous

[soothsayer]

13. you totally lose your center of gravity during your menstrual cycle, or

at least I find that I do (during karate exercises and stuff). mebbe that has something to do with the yoga stuff. not sure about the temple thing, tho.

[cliss]

14. Interesting.

I'll try to find out WHY the Temple priests have said this in the past. I never could figure that out.

[superconnected]

17. Not all of us do. As an adult figure hobby figure skater I still land jumps

and do spins. I don't notice a difference.

[Triana]

21. I do yoga 5 x per week - and I don't find that to be the case for me...

...there is little if any diff in my ability to balance when it's that time as opposed to when it isn't

[Ilsa]

24. I wonder if they'd get paid time off during their cycle if they are "unclean"? nt

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. I once heard a story...

and I think it took place in India, that an electronics manufacturing plant was noticing that every month their product came off the assembly line completely useless for a few days. As it turned out, all line workers were all women and had synchronized their menstral cycles (I forget what that's called). So apparently the normal hormones involved slightly changed the pH of their skin, which chemically doped the electronics that they handled, making them useless.

Not that that has anything to do with this.

They better have a hell of an excuse.

[Triana]

22. Do they ask men when was the last time...

...they ejaculated? Why NOT? Or, when the last time was they impregnated someone (that they KNOW of). Why NOT? It's as inappropriate and invasive.

This is just more of a patriarchal, mysogenist society sticking their noses into women's bodies in order to maintain control. I swear male-dominated societies see women's uteruses as puppet strings and straightjackets. Why must they try to imprison women inside a uterus?

[iverglas]

23. the world is so full of a number of things ...

and google can find most of 'em for you.

I was interested in the comments on women and temples in India in this thread.

http://www.chennaionline.com/columns/variety/2006/07sabarimala.asp

... Should we be bothered when we see, even in the 21st century, a woman being prohibited from doing certain things, like becoming ordained or entering a temple, just because she is a woman?

But why does the temple board tell her so? It gives a smorgasbord of reasons: The 8 km trek to the temple along dense woods is arduous for women; Ayyappa is a bachelor God and his bachelorhood will be broken if he sees a woman; the 41-day penance for the pilgrimage, where one must live as abstemiously as a saint, cannot be undertaken by women - they are too weak for that; men cohorts will be enticed to think bad thoughts if women joined them in their trek; letting women into the temple will disrupt law and order; women's menstrual blood will attract animals in the wild and jeopardise fellow travellers; menstruation is a no-no for God.

And so the list of lame reasons grows. Don't think that no one has ever questioned the inanity of those reasons. Several Indian feminists have fought, and keep fighting, with the temple board in favour of the women devotees. But the temple board remains implacable. It is backed by enormous political clout, and poor Indian feminists, like feminists almost everywhere, must fend for themselves. It doesn't help that many Indian women are disinterested in any feminist struggle. They think that it is presumptuous for women to defy established customs. It is hard to rally them, especially when it involves flouting tradition or religion.

Nevertheless, many brave and, sometimes, distressed women, boldly try to go where no young woman has gone before. ...

We women have our own local fights to fight everywhere you go. (I gather that the temple in question, Sabarimala, is just about alone in not admitting women, and is also publicly funded, and there is a bit of a brouhaha going on in India about the whole thing.)

Menstruating women have been barred from doing all sorts of things in just about every culture throughout history and geography; some of the bans have extended to all women in the menstruating age bracket, just to be on the safe side. Menstrual blood is regarded as unclean -- it pretty much epitomizes all that is nasty and weird about women, who are of course just generally nasty and weird anyhow.

I would imagine that the current employment form question does have more to do with stupid stereotypes about women's health status than about our nasty and weird nature.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=f96299a4-954b-43e2-9933-2d42d2e890fa&

State Principal Secretary (Health) Chandra lyengar said: "Health problems or aberrations are generally mentioned to assess the officer's physical fitness. But information on menstrual cycles is irrelevant." Other senior women officers termed the queries "insensitive".

They have decided to send a protest letter to the Centre, if required. Additional Chief Secretary (Personnel) Chitkala Zutshi said she would seek clarifications from the Centre. A senior officer at the Prime Minister's Office, who declined to be named, was shocked when HT informed him about the new appraisal format.

"We will check on this," he said. Satyanand Mishra, secretary in the Ministry of Personnel at the Centre, said he had not received any complaint. He said the queries were based on advice from the Ministry of Health. "We sought the ministry's help to draw up a health-history format. I assume this will help evaluate the officer's fitness," Mishra said.

[Ilsa]

25. Maybe some women having hysterectomies

should mail in their old uteruses to the Indian Ministry of Labor or whatever it is, since those people want to take control over them anyway.

[varun]

26. Indian govt. drops this ridiculous idea.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Order_on_womens_intimate_details_nixed/articleshow/1895073.cms

NEW DELHI: An embarrassed Centre has decided to withdraw its controversial circular which stipulated that women bureaucrats provide personal health details like menstrual history and date of last pregnancy in their annual performance appraisal reports.

Government on Wednesday decided to scrap this new clause even before it got any reports from female officers in the controversial format. “A decision to this effect has been taken considering the sensitivity of the issue. A fresh notification deleting those female-specific clauses will be issued shortly,” said a top government official.

The decision came on the day when some Maharashtra women bureaucrats openly expressed reservations over sharing such details in the proforma attached to the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules 2007, which was notified on March 14, and decided to lodge a formal complaint with the ministry of personnel...