Students haiku to end period shaming

The word ‘periods’ always makes many males raise their eyebrows. Some faces, including women, will either scowl and turn away or just turn pale with shock. According to the BBC, menstruation is traditionally a taboo subject in India, and in the Hindu religion, menstruating women are regarded as unclean, and are not permitted to touch any idols or enter the kitchen, until they are no longer bleeding.

A haiku campaign that started in a Kerala college gets support from citizens across the country, including Pune. Inspired by the ‘Happy To Bleed’ campaign that took the social media by a storm, the students of a Kerala college started a haiku campaign. They put up haikus — short poems — on menstruation, all over the Calicut Medical College campus and online. Students used moods ranging from humour and anger to express their thoughts in words. And the most inspiring part is that several male students also submitted entries. Even some professors supported their cause.

As the silent movement became a hit online, many students based in Pune also supported the cause. “I can easily relate to these words. Despite my parents coming from high quality academic educational background, they did not prepare me for this natural bodily function. I had to go through a lot of stress during the initial days,” said Sanjana Puri (name changed on request), a medical student at BJ Medical College.

The haiku micro tales contained a myriad of emotions, ranging from happiness to anger and hope. The posters were shared on social media by students of other colleges as well. Haiku soon became a national level competition, with many participants from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and even France.

“An attempt like this has high potential to finally break the silence around menstruation,” Manjiri Desai, another medical student from Pune said.

If you’d like to share your own experiences — from dealing with everyday sexism and gender stereotyping, to period shaming, harassment and abuse, share your stories using #StandWithMe and take the movement forward.

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Originally published on The Golden Sparrow