Sex education is required for everyone, for 100% of the population.

Period education is required for at least 50% of the population.

Now, reality check:

In a world where ‘sex education’ is barely available to anyone, formal ‘period education’ is almost not available to anyone. Girls rely on the knowledge passed from their mothers or whatever they can gather from their friends (who got their knowledge from their mothers).

So basically, period knowledge is the inheritance that’s passed from one mother to her daughter and from her to her daughter and this chain goes on. Due to a lack of access to any formal knowledge, nobody questions the rationale behind all the information passed on. Most of the time, knowledge is incorrect, not logical, not scientific, and full of beliefs and myths.

It is time that we break free from knowledge that is based on myths, superstitions, and beliefs that are followed without any scientific reasoning.

The good news is that attaining this is not difficult if we start working on it from the grassroots level, i.e., with Mothers.

Yes! the onus is on us mothers, as we are the ones who need to educate our daughters and stop passing myths from one generation to another. We can release our daughters from the chains of these beliefs which lead to discrimination and lower their self-esteem. It is primarily on our shoulders to provide our daughters with correct knowledge and to break the vicious circle of myths and superstitions. I am a blessed mother of two beautiful daughters and I have written something straight from my heart, addressing all mothers to join hands to liberate our daughters from the shackles of myths that come along with the word ‘Periods’:

Mommies, we carry a huge responsibility

Providing the right education is our duty

Do not consider it a liability

Let us not treat menstruation with secrecy

As it is not a taboo, it is a chapter of Biology

Mommies, we carry a huge responsibility

For our kids, we are the source of literacy

Let us make sure we teach this topic appropriately

To help them grow with confidence and clarity

Mommies, we carry a huge responsibility

To break this chain of myth and illogicality

We need to handle it with reason and not fallacy

Make sure that the road we pave is sturdy

To give for our daughters, a smooth journey

Mommies, we carry a huge responsibility

Periods do not make us weak, it gives us solidity

We have to make sure our girls accept this, but with humility

That womenfolk are blessed with this God-given superiority

Mommies, we carry a huge responsibility

We have to change the period-glossary

From ‘forbidden’ to ‘ability,’ from ‘restriction’ to ‘acceptability’

Let’s move it from the column of ‘shame’ to ‘normality’

Mommies, no one else but us can bring about this positivity!

Author: Neha Manu

Neha is the mother of two lovely daughters. A Maths Honours graduate with an MBA in Finance, she has been in the IT sector for 15 years. She loves numbers and logic. For her number-love, she is a certified Abacus and Vedic Maths teacher. For her logic-love, she is pursuing her passion in order to eradicate the myths and superstitions attached specifically to periods.

Edited by: Divya Rosaline

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