Living in 21st century hasn’t withered away the primitive myths pertaining to menstruation. Reports suggest that about 75% of Indian women are still hesitant in buying sanitary pads and they feel more comfortable if they are packed in black plastic bags or wrapped in newspapers. In certain villages of north India, a married woman is not allowed to sit with other members of the family if she is menstruating. Even in the urban India, most women are restricted entry into the kitchen during that time because they are considered to be impure.
A report published by Deccan Chronicles stated that “40 percent of women stay at home during ‘that time of the month’ and 65 percent don’t wash their hair.”
We live in a country where one of the basic health care amenities, sanitary pads, is taxed at 12% even though around 80% of our population is still dependent on old rags to cover up their menstrual blood flow. As India completes 70 years of Independence, it’s important to talk about menstruation and the reasons why it is still considered a taboo.
We don’t talk enough about our bodies
We, in India, are scared of talking about our body, and the changes it undergoes. “The day I got my first period, my mother quickly gave me a sanitary pad and asked me to be careful about the stain. And that’s it. For almost three years that followed, I had no idea about what was happening to my body and why,” shared Rupali Khanna a Final Year student of Delhi University. Talking about these sensitive issues makes girls ashamed of their own bodies and instead of finding answers, they are forced to accept the age old arguments.
We don’t know enough about our bodies
Since we don’t talk enough about our bodies, we know nothing about them. Biology classes in India end as soon as they start. And sometimes even teachers do not feel comfortable teaching a subject that they have apparently mastered. “In our school, the chapter on reproduction was discussed by another female science teacher since our main biology professor is a male, he wasn’t comfortable teaching it,” said a 17 year old school student from Rohini.
Religion is in our heads and toes, and fingers and everywhere
Gone are the days when religion was all about finding our own peace by worshiping whoever/whatever pleased us. Now we’re heading towards an era where we’re ready to judge everything, and find our own justifications by connecting everything to religion.
What we eat, wear, read, don’t read, touch, smell, everything can be, in some way, connected to religion and be deemed improper, unreligious, corrupt, etc. If that something is related to women, the patriarchal India wouldn’t leave an opportunity to embed it in the common conscious. Not visiting temples during periods is one such example among many. Religion, to be honest, has nothing to do with the urine, shit or menstrual blood that comes out of my body because of a natural phenomenon.
We’ve turned myths into taboos
“In a particular culture, taboos get formed when certain beliefs stay the same over a particular period of time. These beliefs get solidified, and become so embedded in our collective psyche that we refuse to let go of them even when the circumstances in which they originated change,” believes Aakanksha Bhatia, a Sexual Health and Hygiene expert.
Most of the myths or taboos that we talk about in the modern times had logic in the early era. Circumstances were such that women had to do certain things differently. The “no bathing during periods” for instance, that is still followed by many is a distorted from of the practice that existed in the ancient times when irrespective of the gender, everyone used to take bath in the same pond, lake, river, etc. and nobody would want the blood to get mingled with the natural resource. But now when things have improved, it’s important that we modify and discard off these age old rules that do not hold any importance in the modern world.
