Let’s talk about periods

Aastha Jain : A small or irrelevant issue as it may seems but we need to discuss openly about it . We need to be more sensitive and aware about women issues and not just ignoring this like we don’t know or it’s their personal issue. Why is this taboo exist in the society when it’s just a biological thing that happens to all women. Being a girl i have experienced the various rules attached to the periods. You can’t even say the word period in the public as we are said to refer periods as ‘ girls problem ‘ let alone talking and discussing about it. I don’t understand what is so shameful about having periods. Half of the population in India is female, most of them menstruate and yet this topic is something which is kept under black plastic bags in which we are told to carry sanitary pads.

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What we need today is to discuss about menstruation and the pain and problems that all women suffer.
The two remarkable efforts in the line of understanding women and discussing about mentrual cycle , i would like to mention here are

1. The Movie PADMAN by Akshay kumar
2. The MENSTRUATION BENEFIT BILL by Mr. Ninong Ering
1. PADMAN- This the first movie in india which talks about periods and costly pads due to which mostly women in india don’t use pads during menstruation. This movie is about the journey of a man who loves his wife and understand the need of pads for women hygiene and health . He start his own journey to produce pads when he saw his wife chosing between buying food and sanitary pads and invent a machine which reduces the cost of producing pads.

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In the light of this movie let’s talk about the need of subsidizing women hygience products for their better health . The Government of India announced the menstrual hygiene scheme which aims at providing heavily subsidized sanitary napkins to rural girls . This is a good start in the way of women health care but we need to do more . The starking reality of modern india is that only 28 % of women use sanitary pads during periods. The irony is we talk big and act small.

2. The MENSTRUATION BENEFIT BILL- Recognizing this taboo in our society Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh Mr. Ninong Ering brought up a private member bill in 2017 in which he recommended the two days paid menstrual leaves for women working in both private and public sector. The bill would enable the working women to choose between taking leaves or to take rest in the workplace along with having access to sanitary facilities . Mr. Ering needs to be appreciated for his efforts of introducing such a bill in a male populated parliament and raising the issue of problems faced by women during menstruation. We need more MPs who can bring up more women centric issues for discussion in the Parliament.
There is a long way to go for us to make this society more comfortable for women but first let’s talk about periods .