High time to put a period to society’s mensuration related

Educational institutions are meant to be the forerunners in triggering progressive thinking. Yet, as the recent suicide of a 12-year-old girl from Tirunelveli district due to period shaming proves, this is not always the case. 

The Class VII student ended her life by jumping from the rooftop of her house after she was allegedly humiliated by her teacher and principal for staining her uniform with menstrual blood inside the classroom. 

The incident has come as a shock to the many activists who have been fighting against menstrual taboo in the state. Fighting the taboo Sofia Ashraf, a women’s right activist, who had come out with the popular Period Pattu , says, “Whenever I have had conversations about menstruation online, people fight back saying, ‘We get it. You menstruate. Why do you keep talking about it?’ To all of them - this is why we have to talk about it. Despite the many sensitisation programmes, there are still

many parts of the country where menstruation is viewed as something to be ashamed of. I wish, when I got my first period, my mother had sat me down and talked to me about mood swings and body hair and the changes I was about to go through. Because this didn’t happen, I grew up hating my body for years. We need more personal conversations about menstruation, rather than the clinical and biological discussions that happen in schools. For example, in Tamil Nadu, we celebrate a girl’s first period like a festival. That is the right attitude. After all, menstruation is a symbol of life and life must be celebrated.” However, women’s rights activist Archana Sekar feels rural sensitisation is the need of the hour. “Discussions happening around menstruation mostly happen online or in urban areas. But a major part of our country belongs to rural areas and there is little to no awareness campaigns happening there. In most cases, girls just wake up to blood one fine day and then everyone starts treating them differently. The clothes they wear change, they are no longer allowed to play with boys, they are treated differently by adults, but yet, there is no discussion. People expect girls to just fall into a routine one fine morning. We need to concentrate our efforts on changing this,” she explains. Bharti Kannan, founder of Boondh, an enterprise that works to create awareness about menstruation and makes menstrual cups available at affordable costs, says, “I’m not sure whether period shaming was the only reason behind the girl’s suicide as the police investigation is still on. But if this was the reason, then it is very unfortunate. 

In Tamil Nadu, there certainly is a taboo associated with periods and discussions regarding it are not inclusive of men. So naturally, an institutional set up, like schools will not be so open to the idea of treating it positively in rural areas. 

While working in rural areas we have continuously observed that discussions about menstruation are based on what a girl should not do during her periods as opposed to what menstruation actually is.  

The way to tackle this issue would be to create more discussions, that are also inclusive of men, which view menstruation in a positive way and treat it as health education rather than sex education.” Increasing child suicide rate Even beyond the stigma of menstruation, another issue that has the activists worried is the increasing rate of child suicides. “There are child suicides happening every day. Even in this case, period shaming could have been just the last straw. We will never know if she had other issues. We have to set up counselling centres in every school to

assess and tackle mental distress in children. Counsellors have to engage with the students on a regular and active basis,” says Sofia. Archana adds, “It is frightening that a 12-year-old can even think about suicide. How does a thought like that even enter the mind of a child? I believe pop culture and social media play a big part in this. 

Recently, in a school in the US where my niece studies, a CD of a suicide was found in circulation among the students. 

The school authorities noticed that conversations about it were taking place in the school corridors in hushed whispers. So, they sent a letter to every parent, asking them to sit down and watch this CD with their children, and then have an open discussion. This is what should happen. The only way to tackle such issues is by engaging in open and honest discussions.”