India’s female bureaucrats are in shocking state of mind after receiving a questionnaire about goals and skills including some surprising questions such as ‘when was your last menstrual period?’ and ‘give details of your menstrual history’ in a new job appraisal form.

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

The All-India Services Performance Appraisal Rules 2007 that is intended for senior government staff to complete the three-page health section questionnaire has included these questions in this year form.

According to the data, almost 10% of India’s 4,000 senior civil servants are women. Women civil servants reacted on the questions by saying that;

...these are a gross invasion of privacy. This is insensitive. What will the government do with this information?

According to the rule, the annual appraisals and health checks are mandatory for Indian civil servants. Later, a senior bureaucrat of ministry of health said that the new questions had been based on advice from health officials.

Some of women civil servants said that women in Maharashtra is planning to meet next week and would ask the union government’s personnel department to remove the questions from the forms.

However, the Health Ministry has said that it did not receive any complaints regarding this.

K. Ramchandran, a ministry spokesman, said:

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

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