An initiative was processed in the Congress of the Republic that seeks for women to have a paid work leave when they are during their menstrual days. It is a project that was filed by the representative of the Chamber, María Fernanda Carrascal and Pedro Suárez Vacca, of the Historical Pact.
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A study shown by parliamentarians indicates that between May 2021 and May 2022, 8% of women had to suspend some of their activities, between work, study and home, due to menstruation.
For this reason, they proposed the project as a search for mechanisms that improve the quality of life of more than 17 million menstruating age.
“Menstrual health and menstrual rights are issues that up to now we have experienced from taboo, from shame, going through terrible pain and discomfort that is impossible to explain to those who do not suffer from them in silence, self-medicating and hurting ourselves.“, commented the representative Carrascal.
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“A natural physiological process that can become incapacitating for some girls, young people, women and menstruating people cannot be taboo, on the contrary: we must normalize and speak without censorship about menstruation in companies and educational institutions, not only with the women since it is an issue that is the responsibility of society in general,” the representative pointed out.
For his part, Suárez explained that the project arises from the lack of attention to menstrual rights and “the stigmatization of this natural and human condition for menstruating women and people. The Project evidences a lack of information and resources for adequate menstrual management, protects the rights of people, promotes education and awareness about menstrual health and More importantly, it seeks to implement a paid leave of one day a month, which helps to mitigate discrimination based on menstrual symptoms.
The initiative is made up of 17 articles which stipulate, for example, that “menstruation must necessarily be a public health issue, in turn it is a right that must be freely and equitably accessed to promote good management of menstrual management and other factors that link menstruation to health, well-being, gender equality, education and the empowerment of girls and women, adolescents and menstruating people with respect to their menstrual rights”.
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Accordingly, the articles show that menstruation is a natural physiological process that can be disabling. For this reason, it is sought that women have a day per month of menstrual leave and there will be a period of 26 days to access it again.
“Paid Rest for Menstrual Symptoms. Workers and menstruating people have the right to a paid leave of one day per calendar month in the event of the impossibility of carrying out their workday due to the symptoms generated by their menstrual period. This paid leave will not affect your salary income, seniority, payment of premiums, vacations, bonuses, incentives or other acquired labor rights“, indicates the article that makes an addition to the Substantive Labor Code.
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With information from EL TIEMPO*
