Menstruation has been regarded as a paradoxical reality of Indian psyche since times immemorial in almost all the cultures. On the one hand, the phenomena have celestial beliefs centred on womanliness, the readiness of a woman’s body for procreation as the ultimate highest attainment of the womanhood.
On the other end, the menstruator is subjected to a traumatic living while she is bleeding as period blood is believed to be dirty, impure, and disgusting. Most of us would be familiar with this common reality. Though the shades of experiences might vary, the core colour of the emotion of every woman who has been a victim of such brutal practices is the same.
Feelings of social isolation, anxiety, confusion, distorted knowledge about sexuality, their sexual physicality, and most importantly, embarrassment regarding periods are some of the shared realities which majority of the women have been living with across cultures.
Dalit Woman: An Embodiment Of Magnanimity
Yet, there are some discrepancies in the experiences of women with menstruation when viewing from an anti-caste perspective. The very essence of “social stratification” of Indian society based on caste is deeply embedded in the collective Indian psyche. And, Dalit women are no different when it comes to enduring social exclusion in varied forms of deprivation of the fundamental right of accessing sanitary napkins, hygiene and the least what they can demand, a well-sheltered washroom for changing their soiled clothes.
Shradha TK Lama, through her article, has shed light upon an unspoken yet widely known virtue of “selfless sacrifice” which comes naturally to them. “If given sanitary napkin for free to the women in her family, they would rather sell it to feed their family than use it” were the exact words of author’s Dalit friend.
Roja Singh has unearthed a very crucial aspect of Dalit women realities by quoting verses from Manusmriti. She has compared the plight of upper-caste women and Dalit women. An upper-caste woman undergoes the cycle of purity and impurity as per variations in her biological functions. But, a Dalit woman forever remains impure.
She has been labelled ‘polluted matter’ during that particular period; thus, she is rendered untouchable for all times (source: Spotted Godesses: Dalit Women’s Agency- Narratives on Caste and Gender Violence, 2018). Such narratives have been governing agents in not only the genesis but the sustainability of intergenerational trauma into which Dalit women have been intermittently hauled over.
Mainstream feminist scholars have largely ignored the intersectionalities of Dalit women. The sense of sisterhood has been left to mere fascination only. Their voices have failed to echo in the loud march towards revolution.
Keeping Body And Soul Together In Research, But Alive In Literature
Even, in today’s date, there is a dearth of research papers, articles documenting their lived experiences and narratives pertaining to menstruation and associated stigma. In a long-standing experience of Savarna women fighting to gain entry to the Sabarimala temple, Dalit women, in this case, stand on the farthest end of the rope, they are denied entry to the shrine irrespective of her menses.
The Dalit literary movement in the 1960s did carve a buoyant path for dalits to be mindful and aware of their socio-political rights, self-respect and gentility both individually and collectively. The lived experiences of Dalit women with menstruation have been chronicled in autobiographies wherein Dalit female scholars have endeavoured to redefine their physical representations and embodied experiences.
They refute the tainted view of the understanding of their bodies through brahminical eyes (source: Dalit Literatures in India by, Joshil, K Abraham & Joshil Misrahi Barak, 2015).
The Ongoing Struggle
In contemporary times, activists are engaged continuously on social media platforms for lending voice to the silent warriors. The latter has been fighting an arduous battle against stigma, and oppression for their menstrual rights. Dalit women are still fighting for their rights which are denied to them based on their caste.
Young girls are deprived of their fundamental right to education just because they are menstruating and do not have access to clean, safe facilities. There is still a rough road ahead with rock-solid casteist psyche of the hegemonic spaces carved out in the socio-political landscape of India.
The only viable solution to this problem is inculcating sensitivity towards Dalits as a marginalized community which will happen by unlearning certain societal archetypes, familial values and beliefs as millennials. This will generate an empathetic understanding of ongoing physical and psychological strife of Dalit women with dealing with stigmas and taboos attached to menstruation.
The author is a part of the current batch of the #PeriodParGyan Writer’s Training Program