Red is for Life
While still in the womb with its eyes closed the baby can hear the drumming beat of the mother’s heart, it can hear the gurgling rivers of blood rushing all around it. Whoever said its nice and quiet and peaceful inside the womb? It’s a full-fledged factory production unit on a 24-hour shift. No rest, no respite.
The child is bonded with the mother in blood. Rich red and lifegiving. However, this blood is what allegedly makes women unclean. This ability to bleed has been both lifegiving and a burden that has contributed to discrimination against women.
In many parts of India women are still perceived to be unclean during those 5 days of every month. They are supposed to adhere to a long list of do nots during her monthly cycle. During those days she cannot go to any temple or pray in her domestic shrine, she can’t touch pickles or even wash her hair. Some orthodox households even prohibit women from entering the kitchen during their periods.
Not just mortal women even Goddesses are not spared this and during the time of Ambubachi around the middle of June when sun transit to the zodiac of Mithuna, Goddesses are not worshipped as they are believed to undergo their annual cycle of menstruation.
The Sabarimala temple estimates 40 million and 50 million devotees visiting every year. This temple is dedicated to the Hindu celibate deity Ayyappan also known as Dharma Sastha, who according to belief is the son of Shiva and Mohini, the feminine incarnation of Vishnu was in news recently as it still did not allow women between the age of 10–50 inside the temple premises.
To speak of menstruation is a taboo that women are fighting to overcome. This taboo around the shame of menstruating women has significantly contributed to lack of proper feminine hygiene products to be made accessible to women. A normal product like a tampon is a luxury and sanitary pads are beyond the reach of the lower middle class.
A sanitary towel is packed inside a newspaper and then inside a black packet by pharmacies to help avoid the humiliation it can cause the women buying it. Women’s health has also suffered due to the inadequate education around menstruation and proper menstrual hygiene.
To break from the shackels that have chained women for, centuries is definitely an uphill task. Women have borne menstruation as a shame and yet it is something that should be celebrated as fertility rite. Red is the colour of the vermillion that adorn the forheads of Goddesses and mortal women. Red is the colour of our blood and our life.Red is also the colour of our rage.
