Purnasha Aurora:
Menstruation is a process that allows the world to grow. Menstruation occurs in a female body every once a month. Every month a female body prepares itself for pregnancy, when pregnancy doesn’t occur, the uterus sheds its lining as a form of blood. That’s what we call menstruation or period. Menstruation is a natural process. We have no control over it. It is essential for the world to grow, as it makes women suitable to bear a child.
Menstruating isn’t easy. Every month, there are five-six days of the period, when a girl bleeds, her hormone levels change, cramps, headache, nausea occurs, and she gets mood swings. Before menstruation, many women face pre-menstrual symptoms (PMS). Despite all these obstacles, women continue to do their daily life work. Most people in our society are oblivious to these facts. We have to continue our work even though our entire body is aching.
We’re living in the 21st century, while many people still consider menstruation as taboo, an impure topic. People don’t like to discuss menstruation, as a result, many young girls die every year due to poor menstrual hygiene. Lack of knowledge and hygiene put so many women in danger, and eventually drag them near death. There are also many weird and horrific superstitions about menstruation amongst people. Such as, you’re unholy at the time of the month, you shouldn’t eat meat, you shouldn’t eat pickles, you shouldn’t step outside your room, you can’t enter the kitchen, you can’t perform religious rituals, and many many more. The most hideous superstition I’ve heard is that, when a woman is menstruating, a specific odor or ray is emitted from the body, which turns preserved food bad. Therefore, touching pickled food is prohibited.
Due to a lack of proper menstrual knowledge, there is a huge number of women in our society who still don’t know how to use menstrual products! Instead, they reuse a piece of cloth, which raises the risk of cancer and other diseases. Using cloth during menstruation is unhealthy as the cloth remains wet for so long, the blood dries off and the bacteria can attack easily. The women of rural areas in our country are still unaware of these facts. They’re still living in the cave and putting their health at risk. There are many menstruation hygiene products such as sanitary pads, tampons, cups, etc. Many people and organizations are now campaigning to introduce these menstrual products to the women and girls of rural areas. But this is not enough, as people are not comfortable talking about it yet.
Society is not hygienic for our menstrual health. There are not enough clean toilets or a hygienic environment. Most of the public toilets don’t have sanitary products. What’s even sad is, that these public toilets do not even have a clean water supply. But it is high time, that we provide proper care to menstruating girls. It is essential to keep all kinds of hygiene products in schools, offices, restaurants, and every other place. The menstruating products should be free of cost, or at least not expensive, so everyone can afford them. The companies should be careful while making sanitary products, no harmful object should be in these products.
It is 2022, we still have to fight for our basic health needs. We still have many stigmas that need to be broken. Period blood is not disgusting, impure, or dirty. This is the only blood that is shed without any violence. This blood is shed for prosperity, for life, for growth. The theme of this year’s menstruation hygiene day is ‘Making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030’. Menstruation is natural, it is beautiful and it is essential for life and growth. It is high time that we educate people about menstruation and hygiene.
Happy menstruation hygiene day.