It is not a secret that we, a country of more than 1 billion people, shy away from words like ‘menstruation’ and ‘sex’. Menstruation, a common biological process that affects about half of all humans, is regarded as ‘dirty’ in many cultures and has been looked down upon by the patriarchal society for centuries. Often, even well-read urban population regard ‘periods’ and ‘sex’ as vicious taboos.
The only few times you’d see middle-aged people talk about ‘sex’ is while nudging a newly married couple, asking them to give a ‘good news’, and about ‘periods’ when they want girls to stay away from places of worship.
It’s a shame how most girls have an uncomfortable story to tell about periods. It’s not just the painful period cramps, secret alternative words for periods, and smuggling pads into washrooms but some even face terrifying experiences. Some girls experience social abandonment, 42% don’t get access to menstrual hygiene products, 1 in 5 girls are made to discontinue education.
Overall, about 70% of girls and women lack information about their periods in India. A 2014 UNICEF report pointed out that in Tamil Nadu, 79% of girls and women were unaware of menstrual hygiene practices. The percentage was 66% in Uttar Pradesh, 56% in Rajasthan and 51% in West Bengal. Only 13% of menstruating girls and women in Maharashtra knew about periods before they experience them.
Patriarchal ignorance, superstitions, taboos deprive young girls of crucial information on menstruation and the importance of menstrual hygiene. Sexual health is taught very briefly or not at all to young adolescents. But we fail to see how this is a systematic problem that needs to be looked upon immediately.
Lack of awareness has always been a problem in India’s menstrual hygiene scenario. “Women across India grow up remaining unaware of the real reasons for menstruation and the importance of menstrual hygiene. The taboo surrounding it remains a part of their growing up and continues with their daughters. Hence, the lack of awareness is carried forward via generations in India,” said Supriya Khanna of Indian Council for Medical Research. Because of the lack of information and awareness, so many girls in rural settings often feel like it is a burden to be a girl and feel like their life comes to a halt when their period starts.
Well, sadly but not surprisingly, there has been significant opposition to sex education, especially in 2007, when sex education curriculum was promoted by India’s Ministry of Human Resource Development. Many opponents believed that sex education is against our ‘Indian values’.
Following this, states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Goa decided to ban sex education programmes. Dinanath Batra of the ‘Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti’, wrote a letter on behalf of the organization, stating that teachers who followed the sex-education curriculum could be jailed for two years on the charge of “outraging the modesty of a woman.“
Later, over the years, sexual health education was introduced in the curriculum but only to find out that it wasn’t effectively discussed. Schools were not very helpful either as in rural areas; they refrained from discussing menstrual hygiene. A 2015 survey by the Ministry of Education found that in 63% of schools in villages, teachers never discussed menstruation and how to deal with it hygienically. In many schools, the girls are taken to separate hall and briefed about periods which leaves boys with little to no information about menstruation. This results in a society that has half of the population with no clue about what the other half is going through.
We need programmes that openly discuss menstruation, sex and STDs. Teaching the children about biological processes regarding sex, menstruation, and STDs is essential. But what is crucial and often ignored is, teaching adolescents about the socio-cultural impact of sex on our society and lives.
Teaching them about consent, respecting physical boundaries, contraception, taboos etc. is often ignored. Above all, we need to provide a safe space for children to ask questions without shame and embarrassment. There should be proper menstrual hygiene sessions for parents too, along with their child, which will help us break the taboos that are set around menstruation and sex in cultures and religions over centuries.
In April 2018, a white-paper was released by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India on sexual education guidelines in school. There were specific guidelines in Ayushman Bharat Yojana for this initiative to be significant, such as giving preference to young teachers of science background, with an ability to connect to students. Well, we only hope that this makes a significant change in our conversations about periods and sexual health.
What Can We Do?
If you are a teacher/parent:
- Take part in positive conversations with children regarding menstruation and sex.
- Make sure you have the appropriate information in the first place.
- Assure the child that you are a safe space where they can share any quandary without inhibitions.
- Actively take part in abolishing superstitions and taboos regarding periods and encourage others in doing the same.
- Demand for better sexual health education modules or propose better ones.
If you are a student:
- Understand the importance of menstrual health and sexual health and educate yourself.
- Make sure you have appropriate sources of information.
- Be sensitive around issues related to it and empathize with any problems that menstruators face.
- Not take part in anything that even remotely disrespects anyone or contributes to the patriarchal society’s vicious beliefs.
Today’s young generation will be tomorrow’s working adults that will shape the world, and we have to work towards their holistic development actively. We do not want a tomorrow of misinformed individuals. We do not want 225 million adolescent girls feeling uncomfortable, unwanted, unconfident, and uninformed about what is going on with their bodies.
We do not want girls to drop their education and dreams because of misinformation or lack of awareness. We want our girls and women to live with dignity and hope of fulfilling their dreams. We want individuals that respect consent and take responsible decisions. We want our girl child to know that she could be anything she wants to be and that a period is only an end of a sentence and not her education or her dreams or her life.
This article is a part of Period Shiksha Campaign by The Period Society. Here’s a Petition to Demand for better education modules.