NationStates Jolt Archive

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

Indian women are being asked to give details of their menstrual cycles as part of their appraisal process. I can't come up with any reason why this information could be needed or useful or... just why?

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

Indian women are being asked to give details of their menstrual cycles as part of their appraisal process. I can't come up with any reason why this information could be needed or useful or... just why?

Within many parts of the Hindu faith there are issues of cleanliness, what is clean, what is unclean, certian people, places, jobes, castes, this is no great supprise.

that's interesting - although I still don't get why it would be part of a performance appraisal, or how knowing when a woman is bleeding could be useful. Could they intend to segregate women during their periods? or disallow them from working while they bleed?

that's interesting - although I still don't get why it would be part of a performance appraisal, or how knowing when a woman is bleeding could be useful. Could they intend to segregate women during their periods? or disallow them from working while they bleed?

Meh I dunno, but I do know that the indian goverment is basicly a Hindu goverment. However because of the whole clean/unlclean thing, I recon your guess wont be far off the mark.

with tampons/towels i can't see how this is justified, but then the most i know about periods is from the sex ed book my parents gave me when i was 10 and from various sexist jokes i've heard over the years. also, what is the availability of sanitary products in India? just i know of a historical/prehistorical instances of menstruation being something that was just allowed to bleed, as it were, which is just kind of gross, well actually just gross, but not of any current anthropological examples which surely must exist.

Even if I dont feel it is that bad, there is just no reason for them to ask it. If it was relevant to their jobs... But it isnt.

that's interesting - although I still don't get why it would be part of a performance appraisal, or how knowing when a woman is bleeding could be useful. Could they intend to segregate women during their periods? or disallow them from working while they bleed?

Probably. According to some interpretations Jews, Muslims and Christians are not allowed to touch a woman during her period. One can imagine other faiths having similar restrictions - and actually adhering to them.
Not being allowed to touch has some practical impacts on work.

Within many parts of the Hindu faith there are issues of cleanliness, what is clean, what is unclean, certian people, places, jobes, castes, this is no great supprise.

It's certainly coming as a surprise to the women in question, and I suspect they'd have considered what you've mentioned if it could be in any way applicable.

with tampons/towels i can't see how this is justified, but then the most i know about periods is from the sex ed book my parents gave me when i was 10 and from various sexist jokes i've heard over the years. also, what is the availability of sanitary products in India? just i know of a historical/prehistorical instances of menstruation being something that was just allowed to bleed, as it were, which is just kind of gross, well actually just gross, but not of any current anthropological examples which surely must exist.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but women never walked around gushing blood unchecked from their vaginas.

Probably. According to some interpretations Jews, Muslims and Christians are not allowed to touch a woman during her period. One can imagine other faiths having similar restrictions - and actually adhering to them.
Not being allowed to touch has some practical impacts on work.

This is suddenly an issue now why then? India has been Hindu for, oh, a while it seems.

This is suddenly an issue now why then? India has been Hindu for, oh, a while it seems.

Hindu fundamentalism rising ?

Hindu fundamentalism rising ?

Will Morgan Freeman (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0483079/) be in that one?

Hindu fundamentalism rising ?

*shrug* dunno agian, but what i do know, again, is that the Indian goverment is not free of corruption, and by that I mean it is highly corrupt.

I still don't understand why its part of the performance appraisal - as far as I know, women's performance at work is not affected by having a period... could this be misplaced over zealous health care?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but women never walked around gushing blood unchecked from their vaginas.

actually you are wrong. i've just 2 weeks ago finished reviewing the archaeological evidence from an Anasazi site in Arizona as part of my dissertation where a gendered division of labour was postulated from the associations of aprons splattered with menstrual blood with various tasks in a number of contexts (grave goods particularly).

see Hays-Gilpin, K. (2000), 'Gender Constructs in the Material Culture of Seventh-Century Anasazi Farmers in North-easter Arizona' in Moira Donald and Linda Hurcombe, eds., Representations of Gender from Prehistory to the Present. Basingstoke; Macmillan Press. pp. 31-44. for interest

if it happened there it can happen anywhere else and there is nothing to say that it wouldn't happen today.

I read the article and it seems that these women are having to answer questions about their menstrle cycle, when their last period was, and when they last were pregnant - now doctors can work out, how far along your body is, in its life as a woman - how close you are to your menapause based on your age, the length of your menstral cycles and how many days appart each bleeding session is. As well as that, by asking when your last period was, and how your menstral cycle is looking, and when your last maternity leave is - they get a general picture of how many children you have, and what the likelihood of the female being pregnant. The indian civil service might feel a little silly hiring a woman who is going to leave them after 6 months because she was pregnant when they hired her.

When seen from that point of view, i dont feel they are invading people's privacy, as much as they may have picked the wrong way of asking the questions...However there is such a high procentage of unemployment in india, mabey they feel oblidged to ask this way, because they know people will do just about anything for a job, including lying about their physical state (pregnant or not, menapausal or not)

That is my guess

Sorry to burst your bubble, but women never walked around gushing blood unchecked from their vaginas.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the blood doesn't gush, and I'm sure that it wasn't unchecked but still allowed to drip or whatever...

*shrug* dunno agian, but what i do know, again, is that the Indian goverment is not free of corruption, and by that I mean it is highly corrupt.

And by highly corrupt, he means "Remember Soviet Russia?"

What sort of idiot goes out of their way to antoganise a woman with PMT?

What sort of idiot goes out of their way to antoganise a woman with PMT?

Someone with a death wish, I'd imagine.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the blood doesn't gush, and I'm sure that it wasn't unchecked but still allowed to drip or whatever...

Wait. So hunter/gatherers let women walk around with blood trickling down their legs. And this actually makes any sort of sense to you?

My people had various kinds of 'pads'. No aboriginal people I have ever encountered 'allowed it to drip or whatever'. So unless you can provide some proof of a society that DID, I call bullshit.