FUNCTIONAL JUSTICE AND MENSTRUAL RIGHTS OF WORKING-CLASS WOMEN IN INDIA: AN EMPIRICAL AND LEGAL ANALYSIS
Upma Sharma1, Dr. Vishwa Deepak Bhatnagar2
1Research Scholar, 2Associate Professor,
Law Department, SOLS, Sangam University, Bhilwara, Rajasthan, India
Abstract: Menstruation is a universal biological fact that 355 million women of reproductive age of India experience and therefore is conspicuously missing in the mainstream discourse of labour law, constitutional jurisprudence and institutional policy. This paper develops the idea of functional justice as an analytical and normative theory to assess whether current legal protections, constitutional assurances, and workplace institutionalizations are effective in terms of rendering substantive dignity and equality to the working-class women who do face menstrual health difficulties in the Indian workplace occupation. Based on an innovative empirical survey of 300 working women representing different socio-economic classes, targeting different sectors, and geographical locations, as well as an intensive doctrinal review of legal provisions and statutory frameworks, and judicial verdicts, the study questions the structural disjunction between constitutional rights and their actualisation. The empirical data indicates that 73.33% of the respondents are employed in organisations that lack any menstrual health policy; 62.33% have experienced discrimination or humiliation due to instances of menstrual leakage; 58% have experienced a moderate to severe drop in work performance during menstruation; and 69% have faced an increased level of psychological stress as a result of the compounded burdens of Despite these harsh facts, legislative awareness is appallingly low, with 54.67% of respondents being unaware of some of the most important proposed legislative tools such as the Menstrual Benefit Bill, 2017 and the Right of Women to Menstrual Leave and Free Sanitary Products Bill, 2022. The paper places these observations in the theoretical framework of classical and modern theories of justice, between Rawlsian distributive justice and Sen on capabilities, and feminist legal theory and Nussbaum on dignity, and shows that functional justice does not only require the establishment of gender-sensitive laws but also their internalisation into institutions, their pedagogical spread, and their cultural application. The paper ends with a multi-dimensional policy framework that suggests mandatory menstrual health policies, codification of legislation, expansion of Article 21 protections in the judiciary, development of workplace infrastructure and intersectional legal literacy programmes.
Keywords: Functional Justice, Menstrual Health, Working-Class Women, Constitutional Law, Labour Rights, Reproductive Justice, India, Gender Equality, Workplace Policy, Bodily Autonomy
VOLUME 10 ISSUE 04 2026: 184 – 202