Menstruation! what’s the big deal?

They: So what do you do?

Me: I am working towards spreading awareness about menstruation.

They: Menstruation?! But why menstruation? Is it needed?

Me: Well, there is a lack of awareness among girls and women…

They: But mothers are and have been there to educate the girls. After all, girls find it by themselves once they start menstruating. Hasn’t it always been like that, what’s the big deal?

Maybe it’s not a big deal. Maybe, somewhere, it’s just ok for a girl to get baffled when she experiences her first periods/menstruation unexpectedly. Maybe, it’s fine for a girl to feel deprived and ashamed while being treated as impure during her periods. But it’s definitely not right for the girl to even give a hint of her plight because it’s still a taboo. After all, she has to get used to it just like everyone else and that is how it has always been.

But how I see it, this is totally unacceptable. Having gone through all of this myself, I see a need, a strong reason to generate awareness about menstruation and not let it to be thought and treated as a taboo, disease or a curse. Worst of all, a culture of silence surrounds the subject throughout the world. And if you think this happens only in rural regions among uneducated families, think again!!

The problems related to menstruation may seem very specific to the girls but it has a long term and wide spread effect. The unawareness remains in the girls and remains even after they become mothers and the stigma propagates from mother to her daughter and thus passes on from one generation to the next.

It has a very detrimental effect on a girl’s education. In rural as well as urban scenario, menstruation may seriously affect girl’s attendance & attention in school. The problem is made worse by various myths, misconceptions and taboos which severely affect a girl’s self esteem, social interactions and mobility.

Studies show that in rural area a major number of drop-outs from schools happen at the time of menarche. It has been observed that the frequency of absence of girls from schools increases in girls of age between 9 to13 years. The absence of clean and private sanitation facilities also discourage girls from attending school when they are menstruating. Without access to appropriate materials to manage menstruation a girl may be forced to stay home while menstruating in order to avoid any embarrassment. This absence of approximately 4 days every 4 weeks may result in the girl missing 10 – 20 percent of her school days, inevitably making it difficult for a girl to keep up in the classroom. And this is just where things begin to snowball into bigger hurdles in girl’s life, negatively impacting her education, growth, career. And when this becomes a norm in the society, it severely affects the growth and development of the society itself. May be it’s a big deal after all.

Menstrupedia aims at spreading awareness about menstruation and more importantly initiate and encourage a dialogue through information and knowledge dissemination. Menstrupedia is a small but definitive step to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation, for ages.

Come, let’s join hands together in advancing this cause that aims at touching maximum number of lives. Be an initiator; participate in the discussions at http://questions.menstrupedia.com/. Our website will be in a state of constant development, as your insights will be its key driving force. Your suggestions and feedbacks are valuable to us and would indeed help us in making this whole exercise a meaningful, worthwhile experience.  You can offer your feedback by clicking the feedback button at the left edge of the website.

References: http://www.wsscc.org/sites/default/files/publications/thakre-etal_mhknowlsgepracticenagpur_india_2011.pdf

http://www.wsp.org/wsp/Hygiene-Sanitation-Water-Toolkit/BasicPrinciples/GenderRoles.html