We say our country is progressing, and indeed it is, but are women equal beneficiaries of this progress? In the 21st century, where man has acquired access to reach Mars, we still lack basic healthcare facilities at the workplace for women. Healthcare isn’t a perk or privilege that women receive based on gender. It is a fundamental right for all employees and workers and a necessity in pregnancy, PCOD, menstruation, etc. Also, research shows that women are less likely to talk about their mental illness because there is a gender bias stigma, and they are not taken seriously.
In India, one fundamental disadvantage is that women’s healthcare and rights have traditionally been considered taboo topics for public debate and discussion. This reluctance has a detrimental effect on India’s overall women’s health care situation. The first step toward increasing female participation in the mainstream economy is ensuring that women have equal access to healthcare.
Women in rural areas constitute a significant part of the labour force, and yet, they do not even have hygienic sanitation facilities. The situation in urban areas is better in comparison. But still, there’s a long way to achieve the goal of proper sanitation and health care for female employees. Even though femtech companies provide solutions for this, they are not as feasible in rural settings as in urban ones. Even in corporates, there are matters such as the inability to get leaves during menstruation. It is necessary for individuals, groups, stakeholders, as well as the government, to look into this issue and resolve it.
Women’s healthcare must become an important point of discussion and consideration because it is a crucial factor for women to join and continue in the workforce. Why would anyone want to work at a place where their basic facilities are overlooked? And this is why it is also essential that women assume leadership roles because that would bring them to a position of creating reforms.
-Shamatmika Rathore