In a bold move, the Congress government in Karnataka instituted a policy last week to offer paid menstrual leave to women in formal jobs. This entitles working women between 18 and 52 years old in government and private companies to take one day of menstrual leave every month without a medical certificate. Estimates are that it covers nearly 4 lakh women in the formal sector in the state with some of India’s largest IT, fintech, edutech, and healthcare firms. While the policy leaves out, inexplicably and controversially, millions of women working in the informal sector—often with fewer facilities, such as adequate restrooms, and women doing hard physical labour, such as construction workers—it is a........

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