Menstruation: A Taboo Topic

In India Menstruation is a still a huge taboo topic till date. Even today in 2020, a woman or a girl is not allowed to enter a kitchen or go to a temple, touch a jar of pickles, and whatnot. Girls are treated unclean even when they have an access to self-hygiene products.

Nearly 70 female students at an institute in Gujarat’s Bhuj were pressured to remove their undergarments by their principal to prove that they were not menstruating. This came after the hostel warden complained to the principal that some of them had broken the norms that were supposed to follow during their menstruation. What were these norms? The girls were not supposed to enter the kitchen or the temple on the hostel premise, nor were they allowed to touch fellow hostellers while on their periods. 

 

Move over equality, women still have to fight for being treated with dignity. For not being treated as unclean and dirty while menstruating. No girl should have to feel ashamed of menstruating. That red stain on her uniform, that spare pad she carries in her bag, they shouldn’t diminish her confidence. It is not enough to worship her as Durga and Kali during Navratri, you must accept her physiology too. So the next time we hear the word menstruation, don’t feel alarmed or uncomfortable, talk about it openly, and teach young girls and boys to do the same. 

They need our care not our stare!!!