Me: Goes out
My uterus: Surprise, shawty!
What you read above is only a gist of what happens when most menstruators go out in public places when they are near the date of Aunt Flo’s arrival. I’m pretty sure most menstruators know that having an unexpected period is a nightmare, and that too in public places. Non-menstruators might have questions such as “Why is that even a big deal, just take out a pad and use it!”
But my dear friend, the problem is graver than you think. As easy as it sounds, it’s quite a challenge. Especially with most women clothing not having a pocket (ahem, jeans, ahem!). Pads being “shameful” doesn’t make the situation any better. You might get frustrated and ask, “Then, what should be the solution to all these problems?” An easy answer to this would be:
Making menstrual hygiene products available in public
Why
If the above introduction was not enough, let me elaborate a little more. Imagine we are shopping at a mall, or visiting the school or gym and suddenly, Aunt Flo decides to pay you a little visit unexpectedly. Where will you possibly find a pad? The answer to this would be: “Just go and buy it in the store!”
But then again, it wouldn’t fulfil the criteria of providing urgent help. Mostly, it’s only a matter of time and no one — and trust me when I say this — would like to get spotted in public with on their lowers. Menstrual hygiene products like pads, tampons and paper napkins should be free of cost in public places including gyms, malls and schools.
Even I have had incidents of needing a pad urgently; much to my misfortune, it was not available. Many menstruators feel the same way. Many schools are making period products available, but they are not for free. Now, not everyone would bring Rs 5 every day to get a pad.
Now, you might think about what’s stopping this development. The obvious answer to this is:
Taboos
Menstruation, or well, anything related to menstruation, is considered a big taboo in most places around the globe. Now let’s come to India. Most menstruators, according to a poll conducted by me, have said that they have had incidents around menstruation but were unheard, “It doesn’t matter, it’s a girls’ thing, now don’t talk about this in public!”
Considering the number of people who bleed every month, it does matter. But the conservative nature of the society doesn’t make it any better. I once went to a washroom in a mall to change my pad (and oh, have I mentioned how filthy public toilets are? Ugh), and suddenly a woman came and asked if I had one. I felt so bad while lying and saying that I didn’t. Oh, how I just wished they would make menstrual hygiene products available so that I wouldn’t have to lie to her.
And now, you must be thinking again, “How does the importance of the availability of menstrual hygiene products relate to it being a taboo?”
You must have understood by now that the availability of menstrual hygiene products is a must. But according to society, periods are taboo. Hence, to achieve this goal, all of us first need to destigmatise menstruation and menstrual products. Now, we can make this change happen, we can remove the shame that shadows on this topic.
Let us all take a pledge to normalise periods and make menstrual products available in public places.