Menstruation questions outrage India's female bureaucrats

MUMBAI, INDIA -- India's female bureaucrats are being told to provide details of their menstrual cycles in a new job appraisal form.

Among questions about goals and skills, an appraisal form sent out earlier this year asked female civil servants, "When was your last menstrual period?" and "Give details of your menstrual history."

The form also calls for women to detail their last maternity leave.

"This is insensitive. We feel strongly about this," said Seema Vyas, a civil servant in the western state of Maharashtra's administration department. "What will the government do with this information?"

All civil servants routinely undergo health checkups, but the results are not supposed to be part of their appraisals.

Vyas said women in Maharashtra would meet next week to organize a formal complaint to the federal government's personnel department and demand the questions be removed from the forms.

There was no word on whether female bureaucrats in other parts of the country plan to make similar demands.

The Health Ministry said it had not received any complaints.

"A committee had formulated these new rules. But for every problem there is a solution," said K. Ramchandran, a ministry spokesman. "If things are not proper, another committee will be appointed to re-look at the new appraisal form."

Nearly 10 percent of India's 4,000 federal civil service workers are women.