Kangana Ranaut echoes Smiriti Irani’s statement on paid menstrual leave: ‘It’s periods, not some illness or handicap’

After Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said in Rajya Sabha that paid menstrual leave could lead to discrimination against women in the workforce, actor Kangana Ranaut has echoed her statement and said that menstruation is not “some illness or handicap” and “women don’t need paid leave for periods.”

Kangana took to her Instagram stories and shared, “Working woman is a myth, there hasn’t been a single non-working woman in the history of mankind, from farming to house chores to raising kids, women have always been working and nothing has come in the way of their commitment to their families or community or nation. Unless it’s some specific medical condition, women don’t need paid leaves for periods, please understand it’s periods not some illness or handicap.”

Earlier, Smriti Irani, who was previously an actor in television and films, had spoken about this in Rajya Sabha. “Given today women are opting for more and more economic opportunities, I will just put my personal view on this, I am not the officiating ministry. We should not propose issues where women are in some way denied an equal opportunity just because somebody who does not menstruate has a particular viewpoint towards menstruation,” she said. Smriti was responding to a query on whether the government is looking into providing a law for menstrual leave.

Kangana has had a less than impressive year at the movies in 2023. She was seen in a lead role in Hindi film Tejas, which flopped miserably at the box office. She appeared in the Tamil film Chandramukhi 2 which managed to do decently well in the south but did not generate any noise in the norther belt, which is Kangana’s core fan base. The actor also producer her first film Tiku Weds Sheru, which released on Amazon Prime Video and did not receive any positive reviews.

Next year, Kangana is looking forward to the release of Emergency. This will be her first solo directorial and she will also be playing the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the film.