#365DaysOfWriting – Day Sixty-Five
Why is menstruation taboo?
At work, we had a lengthy discussion on menstruation and sanitary pads. Doing a little research on the subject made me realise how weirdly Indians tackle the subject.
I say ‘weirdly' for the lack of a better word. And just to be polite.
We don’t react with hushed voices and/or awkward glares when we take a piss or a dump. Why menstruation then? Funnily enough, even my phone doesn’t give me an autocorrect option for menstruation if I type in a wrong spelling! Buying sanitary pads in public is almost as bad (if not worse) than buying condoms in public.
One of the weirdest things I read about it today was that women aren’t allowed to touch pickle during their period.
Note: I said TOUCH, not eat. Apparently they make the pickle ‘impure’. What kind of archaic, illogical, mindless drivel is that? The ban on them entering temples is a debate for later, but pickle? I’m sorry, it’s unbelievable that such beliefs still exist in the 21st century.
Then I came across a shining beacon of hope in these despairing times.
Meet Arunachalam Muruganatham, the first man in the world to wear a sanitary napkin. You MUST hear his TED talk, where he talks of the struggles his wife had to go through in a small town in India – no one discussed menstruation, people very shiftily and discreetly wrapped sanitary pads in layers of newspaper so no one would see the exchange in public, and more times than not, the prices of branded pads were too damn high, forcing women to use dirty rags, ash or sand to take care of the ‘problem’. Arunachalam created a cost-effective machine that made cheaper, yet hygienic sanitary pads for women on the spot. Watch the video to know his inspiring story – and all this comes from a man who’s a school dropout.
More than anything though, I believe true change can only come if rural India adopts menstruation as a way of life.
Urban India still is pretty progressive and pads here are bought in the open. Heck even I’ve bought them for my mother back in the day! In rural India, however, those conversations haven’t even begun. Women have nowhere to go to discuss their menstrual problems, and the men think it’s beneath them (or something) to even consider that such a thing exists. If we can bring about a change in THAT India, that would be instrumental in ticking a big box in the battle for women equality – accepting menstruation as a way of life and not as something to be abhorred.
