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19 September 2021: The day when I conducted my first drive. My first menstrual hygiene awareness drive. I had anticipated that day for a long time, planning the entire campaign for the community, spreading integrated awareness about menstruation on social media and whatnot. When I reached my campaign site which was the local slums of the area, the sight, well it wasn't a pleasing one. First step into those slums, and it was as if I had entered a different place altogether. It's hard to believe that a place just a few kilometres away from where I live seems like a completely diverse world. I met a woman there and asked her if more women and girls are living here, forthwith she called all of them and after that, I explained the purpose of my visit. I had my apprehensions that those women and girls would not open up to me or they might refuse from taking the sanitary pads. However, they avidly answered all my questions and even shared their own stories of why these menstruators fail to maintain their menstrual hygiene. 

 A distant dream for them, only because it's an incessant vicious cycle of money, indigence, nescience and an inherent nonchalant attitude of people which seems perpetual.

At the outset of this drive, I had no idea what it could mean to those menstruators or how it would affect me but when I hit those streets, gave them the packages and talked to them in person, I felt that it's just not about their health and safety but it's more than that. We are living in a country where these deprived menstruators are supposedly said 'NO' when they come to ask for something which they direly need, where most of us are so blinded by privileges that we fail to discern what is important for us and what isn't, where these women have no idea what harm it can cause to their bodies and they have to use other substitutes owing to their crippling financial situation and where, education still seems a distant dream for them, only because it's an incessant vicious cycle of money, indigence, nescience and an inherent nonchalant attitude of people which seems perpetual.



Menstruation, Myths and Patriarchy 

I thought I was dying. I didn't know what was happening to me. I panicked as I had stains on my salwar, it was so embarrassing for me. I had to go home and leave my school amidst all this. When my Ma told me what has happened, I felt relieved but also weird and awkward.
     ~ (most of the rural Indian girls on their first menstrual experience)

In many parts of India, at the age of 12, when girls have their first period, they don't even know that it is a natural biological process. It's a gift of womanhood from mother nature but rather what it brings with it is several rules, regulations, isolation and changed expectations from the girls by society. When these girls, from the start, are told that it's a curse to talk about their periods and they refer to them as 'aunties', 'chums', it not only excludes them from sociocultural life but also impedes the advent significant change in other people's attitudes and mentality towards menstruation!

Menstruation related exclusion and shame also undermine the principle of human dignity, resulting in these women and girls facing social odium.

People consider menstruation to be unclean, which has demeaned the stature of the menstruators in the community. When raising an issue related to the periods, on average, about 4 in 5 non-menstruators won't be comfortable talking about it. Even when we go to medical stores, the talk of periods is hushed under the wraps of black polythene bags. And if a man comes to purchase them, they are given stares as if they are dealing with drugs or explosives. The shame and taboo that shrouds this natural biological event are so strong that women in their homes are not permitted to enter the kitchen because supposedly they are 'impure' during those five days of the month. Furthermore, the influence of these myths is so big that even women in my family, who are well informed, hesitate before going to a temple during their monthlies.

But have we ever thought about what all this can mean to these menstruators' mental health, how the adverse reception of periods has far-reaching consequences on the mindset of these women and girls and their self-expressions! What we fail to understand is that menstruation is intrinsically related to human dignity; when menstruators cannot access effective ways to manage their menstrual health, they are not able to manage their menstruation with dignity, which makes them vulnerable to gender discrimination, violence, exclusion from opportunities (many girls drop out from schools in rural areas after the onset of puberty) and untreated severe health problems. Menstruation related exclusion and shame not only raises pressing human rights concerns but moreover, it also weakens the principle of human dignity, resulting in these women and girls facing the social odium.

Source: The Week

One of the women there told me that she has been using cloth from the start and even her daughters use them; she has four daughters and two of them are married and the other two don't even go to school. I asked her what she does for her livelihood, to which she answered that she washes clothes. And is that sufficient for her entire family? No!

Purchasing sanitary pads isn't a luxury or a matter of choice. It's a need for a healthy body.

Now let's just keep ourselves in her shoes and think about it for a minute. If we are given an alternative of what we can afford for those girls between their education or using sanitary pads during their periods, what will we choose? Unquestionably we will prioritize their education. And so would she! Who cares about menstrual health now, if her girls are getting an opportunity to study, she would never in a million years leave it! And that's my whole point! These people are destitute. They don't even have enough means to afford decent schooling for their daughters, buying pads is just out of their bounds. And what upsets me more is that they are not even complaining or fighting against these trying circumstances because they can't, because they think this is what is meant for them and it can not be changed. Purchasing sanitary pads isn't a luxury or a matter of choice. It's a need for a healthy body. Although these women and girls don't go to the medical stores, as women's freedom is still under patriarchal disclosure and how withdrawn people are from this issue, all thanks to the "menses myths", yet when they do go to the stores to buy the pads, those chemists, knowing how essential it is for their health and sanitation still sell them packets which they can't afford only to make few more cents of money for themselves. How vile!

Source: Pentagram 


It's Time to Change: Ending Period Stigma Together 

My friends asked me why I associate myself with this cause? Why do I want to end menstrual inequity and advocate menstrual awareness? Many organisations are working tirelessly to achieve menstrual awareness and hygiene but 'why only menstruation?' The reason why it's only about menstruation is that this is something I relate to and, I understand how traumatizing it can be if not dealt with in the right way. Knowing that many girls suffer from low self-esteem, confidence and bias; how can I not do something for them? These women and girls are not impotent, they just lack support.  And I want to be their voice of change. They are willing to change and fight for themselves, all they need is someone, someone who can pave the way for them, which is what I want and will do for them. Even if I was able to make one woman agree with me on using sanitary pads for her menstrual hygiene, it means I have worked for her entire generation as she is going to impart the same knowledge to her daughter and encourage her to use sanitary pads, ending this erroneous belief of 'periods are a curse', which has gradually yet forcefully settled its roots into our labyrinthine society.


Period blood is normal blood, then why is it considered inappropriate or disgusting? Only because this blood comes out from the lady parts of a woman, or is it because periods are 'sexualized' in our culture? 

After the conclusion of my drive, I was mulling over the irony of the entire situation. We have advanced so much in terms of science and technology, regardless of that we refer to menses as 'that time of the month', an anagram similar to 'one who shall not be named in the Harry Potter movie series, which is indeed amusing and quite absurd if we come to think about it. Isn't it? Period blood is normal blood, then why is it considered inappropriate or disgusting? Only because this blood comes out from the lady parts of a woman, or is it because periods are 'sexualized' in our culture? Associating periods to embarrassment and the very existence of 'period euphemism' is not okay for us! Lack of awareness towards menstruation is not okay for us! Shushing girls when they want to talk about their periods is not okay for us! Deeming menstrual hygiene and products for these menstruators as a trivial issue should not be, so okay for us!  

Dispelling these ludicrous beliefs is an absolute necessity, along with telling the menstruators everything about their periods and how to manage them well. Further, engaging with the community and telling them 'it's just not a girls' issue' is precedent as support from non-menstruators is equally needed. And this is what I want to do through my volunteering for this social cause.  I am glad that I started somewhere as a collective action leads to change. Ergo this is my way of doing what these menstruators deserve along with others, working for the same cause.

Source: ihwc
Out of approximately 40 crores of menstruating women in India, the adoption of sanitary pads is done by a mere 20%.

Let us all be together in this and break the negative social norms surrounding periods. Let us all create a world where menstruation holds no one back, where boys and men talk about menstruation just like they talk about any other random issue, publicly and without shame and where there is no period stigma! Everyone, let us all fight for those who bleed, let's fight for those who are in need!

Out of approximately 40 crores of menstruating women in India, the adoption of sanitary pads is done by a mere 20%. I didn't talk much about the stats initially because it would be intimidating but I hope the message is conveyed now. 


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