“It is certain that men will be born as bullocks in their next life if they consume food cooked by menstruating women. I don’t care if you do not like my views, but this is written in our shastras [scriptures]. If a menstruating woman cooks food for her husband, she will definitely be born as a female dog in her next life,” said a religious leader while delivering a sermon in Gujarati, the video of which has gone viral.
Having worked on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and menstrual hygiene for four years now, the quote was shocking to me. It is not only the government and policies that one needs to work upon but also the social construct around it, which delude the rights and justice for women and girls.
In October 2019, I became part of the ‘Youth Action Network’ under the mentorship of Youth Ki Awaaz, and with the learning, I designed and facilitated Period Sakhi — a campaign aimed at addressing the psycho-social stigma attached with menstruation, which has proved to be a hindrance in practising Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM). As it aimed at breaking the taboos, my core team included family members of all genders.
The first workshop was set up in a house near the Anganwadi. With the help of Menstrupedia (resource material), we kicked off our discussion over menstruation and unfolded the myths and taboos around it. The mothers said that they never had conversations about it with their girls, but deep down they knew the myths were baseless, and due to social pressure they had to follow the norms.
With the journey, I focused on the system uploading the whole structure around women’s health and empowerment. Starting from discussions with ASHA and the Saathin of the block (Nevada, UP) over the distribution of sanitary napkins and Fe tabs for adolescent girls, I was able to understand the gaps in both awareness and accessibility levels.
Although the Saathin worked under ASHA, she did not have a clue about when the sanitary napkins came and when they were distributed. She was only responsible for vaccinations, which she gave to the community members. The ASHA worker said she conducted the distribution drive, but the girls and women of certain areas were always left out.
Sanjana, an adolescent girl living in Nevada, also a part of the Period Sakhi cohort, mentioned that most of the time they did not know about the activities happening around the Anganwadi and that the ASHA worker usually distributed it within her family and stocked it for later.
To enquire more about the accountability of the local governance, and the participation of schools in providing Comprehensive Sexuality Education and health care services, I went to the Mother and Child Government Healthcare Center in Indira Nagar.
My intern, Rohan Mohanto, and I met with the Doctor and ANM. They told us about the programs for girls to prevent anaemia and how the days are decided to visit the communities.
So basically the sole responsibility of the field workers is to ensure the delivery of essentials for both women and adolescent girls. The days being:
- Kishor diwas
- Kishori diwas
- Poshahar diwas
- Garvati diwas
These camps and visits are organized from the 5th to the 15th of each month.
At a private school, the principal refused to talk to us on such issues and was sceptical about running an awareness program based on it within the school. After talking to the students, we got to know that the chapters on reproduction are skipped in class, and there is no stock of sanitary napkins in the school.
We visited another government school where the girls said that they got sanitary napkins on a monthly basis, but the Primary Health Centers (PHCs) were never functional and they were not provided with Fe (iron) tabs, neither were they aware of such a program.
There have been several outcomes, such as increased demands for sanitary napkins and men being engaged in the conversation, like Sanjana discussing menstruation with her brother to educate and sensitise him. The community women also led an awareness drive with a focus on healthy and sustained menstruation.
The secondary outcome was that mothers encouraged their daughters to participate in the sessions and they came up with questions around menstruation, and we collectively discussed and answered with facts.
The fight for the dignity of menstruating members is life long, and it has only become yet stronger amid the pandemic, where along with creating awareness around MHM we were also able to distribute more than 1,300 sanitary napkins in various communities, including the Nevada village.
To know more about government policies on MHM and adolescent health, here are some resources: