Menstruation now-a-days has become a taboo which once symbolized pride. There have been lots and lots of conversations been started related to the stereotypes of this gender and people in this modern world still hold the thoughts of shame for this natural process. Our ancient wisdom across all the cultures used to celebrate the beginning of this day for females as this is the only harbinger of new life in this world. The women fertility symbolized by this process is actually muddled up between the society’s perspective of impurity and rituals which hold no scientific reason.
Even the world celebrated this Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28th of May every year to highlight this process and spread awareness of the management of good menstrual hygiene among the women in our society. There are many ladies who lack the proper education on this issue leading to ill practices due to the prevalence of negative social norms amongst them and this can be seen in the underprivileged areas where the lack of funds lead to poor management of their menses. This Menstrual hygiene day is celebrated globally just to bring together the voices of those who can raise them to reach the public in best possible ways. Of course, there are various agencies working in this area including the government and private sector and the NGO’s too spreading the message of hygiene management among the people. It feels good to have been associated with one such NGO working for the cause and tries to enhance the sanitary hygiene awareness levels on the subject and hope to create maximum positive impact on the society. For this, awareness campaigns are conducted in various cities by the volunteers including the qualified doctors to improve the acceptance of at least reusable products in the rural belt.
The ill practices followed during these days are given the names of rituals by our elders whereas these do not hold any scientific significance. The ladies are not allowed to enter the temples, not allowed to touch the pickles, asked to sleep on the floor in a separate room and many more. But these are all myths settled in the minds of people in a wrong way as they do not know the actual reason of why some traditions are followed. I still remember during my childhood, my grandmother would say that when you are studying, you are touching your books which are considered as Goddess. So, why can’t you go to the temple? I even heard of the Kamakhya Devi Temple in Assam, where the Devi is said to go through these days every month and is worshiped by people. So, these rituals have just taken a wrong direction today which needs to be rectified as early as possible.
The scientific significance of these myths is that the women are a symbol of purity and the beginning of this natural process is a mark of fertility and life in them. So, these days are celebrated with enthusiasm as a symbol of entering into a new phase of life. The loss of blood leads to weakness in the females for that particular time. So, they are required to rest for those days and not perform any tasks that might bring delicacy in them. This should be understood by the people of both the genders to stop following the stereotypic differentiation especially with respect to female gender.
When the women of our country have equal rights to live and freedom of speech, then why suffer from stereotypic variations? There should be acquiescence to this natural process by all. When even the male gender has started accepting this subject as natural, then why the females still force their own gender to follow the ill practices in today’s world. The school going girls also feel shy to take this topic amongst them in a co-educational school. That’s the reason, the male gender needs to be educated on this issue so that they are able to understand what this process mean and what the ladies in their families go through with every month.
The need of the hour is to break the silence now and start building up awareness among the people around us. The women need to manage these days hygienically, safely and should not feel ashamed talking on this subject. This will make a women empowered society and the stereotypes of this gender will follow scientific outlook which was once our ancient wisdom.