A paid menstrual leave policy for any Indian workplace, with the Karnataka order's exact terms, a leave form that asks for no certificate, a confidential register and the notice rule for changing it later.
Nine formats. Read section 1 before you decide the days.
One paid day a month, for every employee who menstruates, on top of the annual leave the OSH Code gives and never deducted from it. A holiday beside the day is never counted as leave, the rule the Code already applies to a holiday inside earned leave.
A menstrual leave application that is a self-declaration and asks for no certificate, a confidential register kept by HR, and a note on who opens it and when it is erased, so the reason never reaches the muster roll.
One page telling managers what not to ask, and a handout that answers the questions staff ask HR in the first month.
A circular that announces the leave, a 21-day notice for changing it, and a Karnataka menstrual leave addendum with the order's own words: 18 to 52, twelve days, no certificate.
Where it is law and where it is choice, who the policy covers, the record's privacy under the DPDP Act, what each rule costs, what the pack could not settle, and forty citations.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) runs attendance, leave and salary in one account, so a paid day stays paid and the reason stays private.
Because in one State it is an order, and everywhere else it is a promise the law will hold you to.
Karnataka's Government Order of 12-Nov-2025 directs every registered private establishment to give women aged 18 to 52 one paid day a month, twelve a year, with no medical certificate and no carry-over. The High Court directed its strict implementation on 15-Apr-2026 without ruling on its validity, and employer petitions challenging it had not been decided when this pack was reviewed, as reported. No other State reaches private employers, and no central law does: the OSH Code gives workers in an establishment of ten or more earned leave at one day for every twenty worked, and says nothing about menstruation.
So outside Karnataka a period leave policy is your choice, and three rules then bind what you write. It sits on top of statutory leave, the way maternity leave under the Social Security Code does, and is never deducted from it. Cutting or withdrawing it later is a change to 'leave with wages', a Third Schedule matter, so workers get 21 days' notice first, like any other line in the wider leave policy. And the record of who took it is personal data.
Then there is who it covers. A trans man who menstruates is a transgender person under the 2019 Act, which bars unfair treatment in employment, so the policy says 'every employee who menstruates'. Whether a women-only leave is discrimination 'in the conditions of employment' under the Code on Wages is open; the Karnataka High Court called it substantive equality, the idea behind the equal opportunity policy disability law makes you publish.
The same pack serves a garment unit in Bengaluru, a hospital with night wards and an IT company with staff in three States: the days may differ, the rules do not.
Whichever menstrual leave policy template you start from, where the employee works decides whether the leave is owed.
| Point | Karnataka order | Your policy elsewhere | Who it reaches | Rule | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days | 1 a month, 12 a year | [One] a month, you decide | Women 18 to 52; every employee who menstruates | GO of 12-Nov-2025; your policy | 01, 08 |
| Proof | No certificate may be asked | Self-declaration only | Every employee | GO condition 2 | 02, 04 |
| Carry-over | None, use it in the month | None, say so | Every employee | GO condition 1 | 01 |
| Changing it later | 21 days' notice | 21 days' notice | Workers, not managers | IR Code s.40, item 5 | 07 |
| The reason stays off | the muster roll: | a separate | register, HR only | DPDP Act s.8, from 13-May-2027 | 03, 09 |
For women aged 18 to 52 in every registered private establishment, permanent, contract or outsourced. No certificate, no carry-over.
Source: Karnataka Gazette No. 748 (Karnataka Employers' Association's copy), GO No. KAI 466 LET 2023 of 12-Nov-2025, gazetted 20-Nov-2025; no government-hosted copy was foundLeave with wages is item 5 of the Third Schedule, so a change to it needs notice first. Managers, and supervisors on wages over ₹18,000 a month, are outside the rule.
Source: Industrial Relations Code, 2020, s.40 and Third Schedule, items 5 and 8The OSH Code's leave is earned, one day for every twenty worked. The policy's day is not earned, and is never deducted from it.
Source: OSH Code, 2020, s.32(1), clauses (i) and (ii)Karnataka's order bars it. Elsewhere the proof costs more than the day, and the record of it is personal data you then have to guard.
The OSH Code's annual leave is a floor for workers in an establishment of ten or more. A policy day taken out of it gives nothing, and a State Shops Act can set a higher floor for sick or casual leave.
A trans man who menstruates is protected in employment by the 2019 Act. Write 'every employee who menstruates'.
Use a neutral leave code there, and keep the reason in a separate register HR alone can open.
Once given, it is leave with wages and, after it has run for years, a customary concession. Workers get 21 days' notice of any cut, as they do for the leave clause in your standing orders.
It directs a registered establishment in Karnataka and reaches no other State. A multi-State employer needs the addendum for one State and the policy for the rest.
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Nine formats, each on its rule
Pick the days, drop the certificate, keep the register private. If women on your rolls work late, add the night shift consent form.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. General guidance, not legal advice. This pack is one of our free leave and policy formats, each built from the law rather than from other templates.
Nine formats, from the policy to the register's data note, a Karnataka addendum and forty citations, in Word. Free.
