Source- Desiblitz
Menstruation, in biological terms, is the typical vaginal bleeding that every woman experiences every month, preparing her for pregnancy. Even though it is such a common part of every woman's life, menstruation is still regarded as a taboo subject that must be handled in private in most of our homes. It is kept hidden physically and verbally, with the assumption that discussing it will make the listener uncomfortable and disgusted.
However, the issue arises when people begin to normalize the stigma's effects. Menstruation's social stigma has a variety of little and significant impacts on a woman's and a girl's lives. One of them is that their education has come to an end. Girls, particularly in India's backward districts, are deemed ready for marriage and children once they reach puberty, which forces them out of school.
Another major consequence of seeing menstruation as a taboo subject is a lack of knowledge about menstrual hygiene. Menstrual hygiene entails more than just the use of sanitary napkins and proper cleanliness. It's about women having the right knowledge about their bodies and the right atmosphere in which to deal with their menses discretely and securely... Two-thirds of all women who die of cervical cancer had poor menstrual hygiene, according to research.
Education and menstruation
The majority of us learned in ninth-grade biology that menstruation is a biological process. During those lessons, we used to make faces, and the lads would sit through them with disgusted expressions on their faces. Out of curiosity, the males in our class used to grab sanitary pads from our luggage. Anyone in our class who had a stain on her skirt during periods was teased.
The number of menstruation women in India is 55 million, accounting for roughly 30% of the country's population. In India, there is still a gender divide when it comes to menstruation. Many girls are forced to drop out of school early or be ostracised for the course of their menstrual cycle every month due to myths surrounding menstruation. According to a 2014 research by the NGO Dasra titled Spot On!, over 23 million girls drop out of school each year due to a lack of basic menstrual hygiene management services, such as sanitary napkins and logical menstrual knowledge.
The report also included some alarming figures. 70% of moms with menstrual children thought menstruation was filthy, and 71% of adolescent girls were uninformed of menstruation until they reached menarche.
It’s time to change our mindset
Women aren’t allowed in temples while menstruating. Although with access to sanitary napkins women can surely maintain their hygiene during periods people still make them feel that they’re impure.
Girls learn to cope with the agony and dread of periods from an early age, and we rarely see a girl seeking help while in physical or mental anguish due to periods.
However, as the usage of social media has increased in recent years, women have begun to share their experiences with menstruation as well.
However, this freedom is frequently questioned, and people who share their tales face banning, while trolls who engage in moral policing and demeaning women go unpunished.
"It's time to release them from shame and provide them the tools they need to deal with their grief." Social media is a strong instrument that should be used to convey positivity and raise public awareness.
Young girls frequently have limited awareness of menstruation as a result of their mothers and other female relatives' aversion to discussing the subject with them. Adult women may be unaware of biological realities or basic hygiene habits, instead passing down cultural taboos and limits that must be followed. Community-based health education programmes may be beneficial in accomplishing this goal. There is also a need to raise knowledge about menstruation among school teachers.
The association between food and the period is paradoxical in most Hindu communities in India. A fertile woman is viewed as an object that will help to perpetuate a family lineage, yet she is also shunned because of her fertility.
Improvements in menstruation-related infrastructure, such as sanitation and period products, are also a step in the right direction. Women, on the other hand, will be unable to fully utilise them if they are engulfed in period blood stigma.
Written by- Hanshu Varandani
0 Comments