Kathmandu: The Nepali government has proposed granting menstrual leave to female civil servants by amending the Civil Service Act 1992.
The government has included menstrual leave as one of the leave facilities for civil servants in the Bill to Amend and Consolidate Laws Relating to the Federal Civil Service, which was registered at the Federal Parliament Secretariat later this week.
If the bill becomes law, Nepal will become one of a handful of countries to provide menstrual leave to civil servants. South Korea and Japan are among the other countries that have provisions for menstrual leave, while most countries do not provide such leave for women government employees.
In India, the Central Civil Services leave framework does not provide a separate entitlement to menstrual leave. In March 2026, the Supreme Court of India declined to impose a nationwide menstrual-leave policy, while allowing the government to consider the issue after consultation.
Some Indian states also offer limited menstrual leave; for example, Bihar and Odisha give two days per month to government employees.
According to the bill, female employees will continue to be entitled to casual leave, home leave, sick leave, study leave and extraordinary leave, like other employees. In addition, the bill proposes that they will be entitled to menstrual leave, maternity leave, childbirth leave and maternity care leave.
The bill does not specify the conditions for menstrual leave, including how many days they could take leave when they undergo menstruation.
The Nepali government’s move comes at a time when the representation of women in Nepal’s civil service has been growing rapidly over the past two decades.
In 2007, an amendment to the Civil Service Act 1993 established a legal framework requiring 45 per cent reservation in civil service positions for underrepresented groups, with 33 per cent of the reserved positions allocated to women.
The law has had a significant impact on the representation of women and other underrepresented groups in the country’s civil service.
According to the Nepali government’s Economic Survey 2025-26, the number of female employees working in government entities across the three tiers of government and registered with the Department of Civil Personnel Records (Nijamati Kitabkhana) reached 30.0 per cent by mid-March 2026, up from around 8 per cent in 2008.
(IANS)
