All around us, there are many problems we face every day. Daily we hear about rape cases, terrorist attacks, scams and many more, and the whole world is fighting against it.
But there is one problem which is hidden deep inside every house but its voice gets suppressed under the walls of the houses that is the menstrual taboos. It is still blindly followed by the people. Even the educated urban classes are involved.
There’s no any major campaign or protest have taken place. Some protests like Pads Against Sexism and Happy To Bleed were outraged but they were too not supported by the administration and didn’t lasted long. As per the intensity of the problem they couldn’t make any huge impact.
It is one of the least discussed social issue in india. There’s hardly any means to spread the awareness about the menstrual stigma. Even the biology teacher skips the topic.
Girls are not allowed to go to kitchen, temples, taking bath and even in some villages they are stopped going to school after their first menstrual flow. If we look in long past these rituals were made due to some genuine scientific reasons but the people had made it a religious custom and following blindly.
Today’s young generation people are talking and discussing on every issue. Sharing their personal and family problems with their male and female friends but no one’s sharing their views on period sexism. They are talking on every social contemporary issue, but guys the seriousness of this problem is that people are taking periods so seriously. Indian women are still following these shitty rituals and even forcing their family members to follow it in the name of religion.
Girls don’t talk about periods and its problems with boys. I have never heard a girl giving an excuse of periods on any matter.
The psychology of Indian families regarding this menstrual taboos is so deep rooted that they don’t even talk about it to the male members of the family. Mothers since childhood teach girls not to talk about it with anyone. Even the young girls in this new generation believe in these taboos even after knowing that it’s all nothing but a myth.
There may be two reasons behind it, first either the girls have started believing in it or they are following it due to parental pressure and doesn’t have the courage to revolt.
Now here comes the main problem. The thing we are lacking in is awareness and communication gap. Not only girls but the boys too have to speak up and raise voice against these execrable problems. You too are a part of it. These superstitious beliefs needs to be uprooted from the minds of the young generation people so that it doesn’t pass on to the next generation.
Boys there gonna be no solution by just sitting on the back benches and laughing about it. Menstruation is not a disease, it’s a natural and healthy process. It is as normal as other life processes. You are in this world just because of it. Just because its only happening to girls and not to you doesn’t mean it’s abnormal. If you are accepting a girl you have to accept every aspect of her life. It’s the Bloody Truth.
When you girls go to buy sanitary pads from shops you take it wrapped in newspaper and black polythenes. Why what are you ashamed of, those pads or yourself. The people around starts staring like if they fools don’t know that their mothers and sisters too use it. And to those bloody shopkeepers if you are soo ashamed of it why don’t you just cover your face rather than covering those pads. Paint your face black rather than giving those in black polythenes.
If I talk about media and films there’s hardly any major movie made on this issue. The advertisement shows pouring blue blood on sanitary pads. Girls don’t bleed blue. Why even the product is called whisper. Does it means talking about it secretly or what. Every day, day and night there are debates and discussions going on on several issues in news channels, schools and public places but no one ever tries to look onto this matter. This is the major reason of lack of awareness. This problem doesn’t even come in the minds of the people, like if it’s not to be talked about in public.
For the mentality of the boys, the family members are themselves responsible. Since childhood, boys see that that no one talks about it. They know the use of the pads but sees the family female members hiding it. They grow with the same mentality like it should not be talked about.
If I talk about my experience in my entire life I have never seen a sanitary pad lying in my house nor buying it along with daily products and I know this is not just a story of my house but almost every house. What a great secret agents these ladies are. Rather than applying so much of their brains in this nonsense if they had applied it in any there work it would have been beneficial.So guys it’s the time to wake, rise and hit the doors of those minds, and bring the change. And as a wise man once said “to bring a change you have to be the change”.