Indian Government Drops Requirement For Female Government Workers To Disclose Information About Menstrual Cycle, Maternity Leave

The Indian government on Thursday announced that it has removed questions about female workers' menstrual cycles and maternity leaves from government appraisal forms due to "the sensitivity of the issue," an unnamed official from the Ministry for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. The new appraisal forms, which were introduced in March, required women to disclose details about their menstrual history, most recent maternity leave, Pap tests and mammograms (AFP/Yahoo! News, 4/12). According to the AP/Raleigh News & Observer, all civil servants in the country undergo routine health screenings, but the results are not supposed to go in appraisals. Seema Vyas, joint secretary for general administration in the Indian state Maharashtra, said the new rule was "insensitive" (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 4/12). Satyanand Mishra, head of the personnel department, said the questions in the All-India Services Performance Appraisal Rules 2007 were based on advice from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Ghoge, Hindustan Times, 4/11). K. Ramchandran, a spokesperson for the health ministry, said a committee had developed the rule. Nearly 10% of India's 4,000 federal government workers are women, the AP/News & Observer reports (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 4/12). The unnamed official said that a new "notification deleting those female-specific clauses will be issued shortly" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 4/12).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.