Govt drops menstrual queries from service review form

NEW DELHI: The government has decided to drop intrusive questions relating to the menstrual history of female bureaucrats in a new service review form after it caused a furore, a report said on Thursday.

"A decision to this effect has been taken considering the sensitivity of the issue," an unnamed senior official of the Ministry of Personnel told a newspaper.

"A fresh notification deleting those female-specific clauses will be issued shortly," the official said.

The performance appraisal form introduced in March has a three-page health section that asks women for a "detailed menstrual history," information on their "last confinement," and about their pap smears and mammograms, according to a copy of the questionnaire.

The form raised the hackles of female bureaucrats who said the questions had no bearing on their work.

Once the intrusive questions are deleted, men and women bureaucrats will record similar details concerning routine health check-ups comprising blood reports, liver and kidney tests and cardiac profile, it has been reported.