Various student organizations have been reportedly pushing for menstruation bonus for girl students for some time now (Representational Image)
According to the order issued by the Joint Registrar of Kerala’s Cochin University of Science and Technology on January 11, female students can claim an additional 2% exemption of attendance every semester.
Girl students of a university in Kerala can now avail “menstrual benefit” as an additional exemption from the absence of attendance. Keeping in view the long pending demand of the students, Cochin Science University and technology (CUSAT) has allowed an additional 2 per cent for shortfall in attendance of female students in each semester.
an autonomous university, CUSAT has more than 8000 students in various streams and more than half of them are girls,
A recent order said, “After considering the requests for the benefit of menstruating female students, the Vice-Chancellor has ordered to sanction an additional 2 per cent for shortfall in attendance of female students in each semester. ” Issued by Joint Registrar.
According to university sources, various student organizations have been pushing for menstruation bonus for girl students for some time now. A proposal in this regard was formally submitted to the Vice-Chancellor recently and it was approved following which an order was issued. When contacted, a CUSAT official said that relaxation will be different for each student as it will depend on his/her attendance.
“It will be different for each student. Every female student can claim two per cent of her total attendance as menstruation benefit. Hence the exact number of leaves has not been mentioned in the order.” the official told PTI.
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The order will apply to girl students of all streams, including those pursuing PhD in the university, and is expected to come into force with immediate effect, the official said. University Students’ Union President Namita George expressed happiness that her demand was accepted by the university without any objection. “As per the rules, CUSAT students are required to have 75 per cent attendance in each semester to appear for the exam. But through the new order, girl students will get a relaxation of two per cent and their eligible attendance will be reduced to 73 per cent in each semester.
Namita, an LLB student, said that though the union’s earlier demand was to grant a specific number of days off each semester as menstrual leave, the university pointed out some practical difficulties in implementing it.
“Those practical issues were genuine. Therefore, we also accepted the suggestion of a provision to waive off the shortage of girl students. The University authorities including the Vice-Chancellor took a positive stand on the issue.”
The order will be submitted to the Academic Council for procedural approval, and it is anticipated that it will be implemented soon after receiving its approval. Sridevi, a PhD candidate at Kerala University, told PTI that there is a need to set up a comparable mechanism in other schools of higher education.
“The decision of CUSAT to give menstruation benefit to girl students is a historic decision. I think this is very important and should be implemented in all colleges and universities.”
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