Menstruation has always been a taboo in Indian society. To eradicate myths associated with periods, and to build a generation of confident women, awareness campaigns against periods should be made a priority
By Kreeanne Rabadi, Regional Director (West), CRY – Child Rights and You
It happened last week. While standing at the counter of a pharmacy ordering my regular medicines, I found the girl next to me whispering something to the middle-aged man on the other side of the counter. He gave her a nod, flashed something out from the rack and quickly wrapped it with a sheaf of old newspapers. As if handling a highly secret classified consignment or maybe a ready-to-explode bomb, the man went on wrapping it with great care – first with another piece of thick brown paper and then with a 200 per cent opaque black plastic wrapper before finally handing it over to the girl. As if to hush up the last physical proof of a crime just committed, she quickly put it in her bag, gave a surreptitious smile at me and left the shop – leaving me somewhat amused, and a little worried as well. If buying a pack of sanitary napkins still remains a taboo, that too in a big med-shop in downtown Mumbai, what the scenario could be like in small district towns, or in more remote places?
If this incident brings out the ‘culture of silence’ around periods, there’s a whole lot of discriminative practices as well, when it comes to the overall social narrative around menstruation. Discrimination against menstruating young women has been quite common in India and periods are considered to be taboo and often associated with impurity. From quite an early age, girls are socially programmed to live with the fear and pain, and are seldom allowed to seek help when in acute physical or mental discomfort due to their periods. There is so much shame that shrouds this topic, making it uncomfortable for girls to speak about it freely.
It was almost a decade ago that we at CRY began working on Menstrual Health Hygiene (MHH) with our many stakeholders and what we have consistently seen is the silence, exclusion and shaming that adversely effects girls, and hinders their potential significantly.
Girls are being asked to sit outside their homes disconnected from family members during their periods, but most concerning is that they are often forced to stay away from schools due to severe pain or embarrassment, and sometimes even a lack of having separate toilets in school. A large number of girls have admitted that they would skip attending school whenever they got their periods. Furthermore, many also confessed that they did not have access to sanitary pads or even proper menstrual hygiene at both home and schools.
The restrictions on mobility and the notions of ‘impurity’ that comes with periods adversely affects their confidence and self-esteem and in the long run can impact their development.
The fact that girls, especially those hailing from underprivileged communities, have no access to anyone who can clear their doubts, empathize with them and normalize what they are going through is something that needs to change.
Keeping this is mind, in July earlier this year, we at CRY kick-started a pan-India campaign to create wider awareness on the subject and end the silence around it. While the primary target of #Let’s Talk About It! Period! are girls between the ages of 10-17 years, we also want this to reach adolescent boys, family members and communities as well.
In New Delhi we got on board the many auto rickshaws to be part of our poster campaign to demystify the myths that come with periods and in Mumbai, we collaborated with the Mumbai Municipal Corporation by tying up with over 32 schools to reach out to adolescent girls to create awareness on the subject through our volunteers.
In rural Maharashtra too, through our partners we reached out to adolescent girls’ groups to hold workshops and discuss openly the challenges that they experience and to empower them to seek the support they need to overcome these.
Through these awareness workshops, we encourage adolescent girls to openly talk about periods as a normal body function instead of a topic that incites shame and embarrassment and at the same time address myths and taboos related to menstruation and build awareness about the facts. The workshop not only focused on mental, emotional and physical facets creating awareness about the harmful socio-cultural myths and practices related to menstruation but our volunteers also engaged in discussions and games to develop positive body image and explain how gender discrimination plays a large role in creating a negative impact on girls’ health, self-image, and overall development.
A further extension of this campaign is our upcoming survey among girls within our intervention areas – to assess their levels of understanding, knowledge, attitude, and practice when it comes to managing menstrual health and hygiene, and assess the myths, misconceptions and restrictions practiced by girls during menstruation. The survey is currently being conducted among 4000 plus respondents across the rural and urban intervention areas in eight states, namely West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Similar efforts have been made by many other civil society organizations as well, and as a result of such efforts, many girls are speaking up fearlessly and breaking away from the shackles of period shame. For instance, in Latur district of Maharashtra, a group of adolescent girls came together to write to the district collector demanding the government install sanitary pad machines in their schools. If through our campaigns and our ongoing work on MHH we can enable and empower more girls to speak out against period shaming so that they can focus on taking care of their health, access menstrual hygiene with freedom and live with dignity, that is indeed a big step in the right direction.