Category Gender, Pluralism and Social Inclusion

Whose Productivity Counts? Gender, Work, and the Menstrual Leave Debate (2026)

Whose Productivity Counts? Gender, Work, and the Menstrual Leave Debate (2026)

Menstrual leaves are formulated to accommodate paid/unpaid leaves for those experiencing extreme symptoms of dysmenorrhea, endometriosis, and other related health problems mark a milestone in the recognition of menstruation as a biological phenomenon that cannot be dismissed as a personal issue. 

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Best of Both Sides: Women’s reservation can give a voice to those who haven’t had one

It is the small yet impactful changes happening in India’s villages which show that a democratic transformation is underway. Here, the meaning of nari shakti is being quietly, but decisively, redefined — it is visible in how women’s political participation through the Panchayati Raj institutions has initiated a subtle yet profound restructuring of power relations. Women are becoming stakeholders by exercising legitimate authority over public resources — deciding where a hand pump is installed, which welfare scheme is prioritised, and how village needs are articulated. Empowerment, for them, is not performative radicalism but the everyday practice of decision-making, anchored in the institutional power conferred on them by reservation, which is not charity but a corrective measure.

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