A Period That Calls For Urgent Participation

Systematic exclusion of a family member within the family—sounds a bit odd, right? But that is what we do to women in our family in the name of menstrual period. It's hard to erase the memories of childhood. One such hard-to-forget memory is that once a month, my mother or sister would sleep on the floor, not allowed to cook food and even not allowed to touch anything, including fruit-bearing plants. When I used to ask about these sudden restrictions on my sister or mother, I was informed by the elderly that they had stepped on a dog-poop. After seeing the same incident happening almost every month, I again asked my grandmother, "Why did they step on the poop again and again?" She somehow ignored me with a loud laugh. One day, while coming from school, I intentionally stepped on dog-poop. The plan was to avoid studying and going to school. When I was proudly telling my mom that I touched the poop accidentally, she gave a very normal expression and asked me to change my school uniform. I was expecting something else, but no, nothing happened. I never tried that again, seeing that the poop thing is only applicable to my sister, mother, and not me. I was very disappointed at that time. It took me years to understand those dramatic events. It took me years to go back to my sister and talk to her about it. Then only did I understand how, based on a natural function like the menstrual period, this society systematically excludes women within their own family. We have criminalized a woman's life based on a biological function that is very natural to her. Systematically, we are trying to institutionalize the belief in her that she is a lesser-human and being a girl or woman is a curse that she has to be treated as an untouchable for at least a week every month. We try to convince her not only at home but also at work that she can't do more or even normal things because of her periods. The way we have criminalized a woman's life, we have also criminalized the 'period'. So much so that it took years of struggle for women to talk about it, and we are still struggling.

When I first talked about it in a school in Banswara, Rajasthan, the teachers asked me to leave the premises. It was a huge struggle to conduct a 'period awareness session' in a school then. First, I had to make my field team aware and they had to practice it in their own family. Then the field team visited door-to-door and we called for a huge meeting of parents and students to discuss the period. Two girls spoke with a lot of courage. Most of the girls had to miss school for at least 7–10 days due to their periods, and the reasons were lack of toilets, no female teacher to talk about it (no confidence to talk to a male teacher too), and the absence of sanitary pads, or at least clothes. Against lots of odds, we made the male students also attend the session.?

Whatever comes naturally to us gives us strength and an opportunity to grow. But in the case of women, we have systematically converted their natural functions into their weaknesses and limitations. Unfortunately, the imposition of limitations begins within our own families, with our own family members. If stigma around menstruation exists today, then think twice before claiming how developed and civilized we are.?

It is not right that only women have period stories. We all have one too. The only thing is that we have to recognize that story(s). I am loud about my period story. What is yours?