Menstruation – A disease of Mentality

The government launched swatch Bharat Mission (SBM) with the aim to make India clean. In Earlier days, government’s sole focus was on to construct the toilets. Government builds in millions but people were not using them. Later, Government recognized the mistake and launched the Public awareness campaign to push people to develop a habit to use toilet through the campaign like “Darwaja bandh”. The government also changed the mentality and began to evaluate the progress of the SWB through the Open defecation free (ODF) rather than a number of the toilets constructed. It’s the mentality change that gives push to SBW.

Now let’s check what government is doing on the front of the Menstruation hygiene care (MHC) which is also part of the SBW. Menstruation remains in oblivion till the Akshay kumar starrer film Padman got released.  MHC got a boost on this International women day when Government announced to provide Pad for the Rs.2.5 per pad cost. It’s really welcome step. But is it enough? No. Just think this development with the parallel of the Scheme of the toilet construction. Does toilet construction change the habit of the defecation? No, Its campaign of the Behavior change changed things.

Frankly saying, I am not a girl and also not a married man who can know more about menstruation things but I noticed these things closely. In recent months I got involved in some kind of work pertain to MHC. I found that some Repudiated NGOs, Working in the Menstruation care called Menstruation – Asuddhi (Impurity).

Here here is the catch. In India, there are two types of the Impurity – Physical and Rituals.

·         Human feces – Physical Impurity + Ritual Impurity

·         Cow dung - Physical Impurity + Ritual Non-impure

·         Newborn babies - Physical Non-Impure + Ritual Impure

Now when one called Menstruation an impurity,  we must have to explain what type of impurity we are discussing. First of all, Medical practices don’t accept this term of the impurity ( Physical) for the menstruation. Even though one considers it as an impurity, one has to call it physically impure cause the notion of the ritual impurity attaché to anything leads to complexities. The taboo of the Menstruation is all about the ritual impurity and it has nothing to do with physical impurity.

Our Teacher in school told us a story that how the good tradition turn in to taboo – Women experience physical weakness in days of the Period and that’s why there was a tradition that other women of the house ( Joint families were there) prepare food for a family member so the women in period can rest. But later with time,  some twist and turns took place and it became the norm that women are not allowed to prepare food when they are in periods. So the Norms of the ritual impurity are the real enemy and not the cost of the pads. ( I dont know whether this story is true or wrong - But it seems logical)

Now let’s come back to the main point – Government going to provide Pad for Rs.2.5 to women through Jau aushadhi stores. But to avail this benefit, women have to come to the store to purchase. Will Women come? Will they come with a black plastic bag to keep the pad in that so other people cannot see it? I myself saw that many people (men and women) gave bad look when one asks for the Pad or condoms at pharmacy stores. I know that it's never easy to face the moral or ritual norms which are deeply rooted in society. So the real enemy, in this case, is not physically impurity but it's Ritual impurity. When we can eradicate polio, We can vaccinate millions of children every year, we can also easily solve the issues of the menstruation linked with Physically impurity. The real challenge is the notion o the ritual.

You can draw parallel the issue of the Menstruation with the Issue of the HIV. In Case of HIV there are two entwined issues - Physical health and Moral Norms. Government providing Free of cost treatment to HIV patients ( Physical fitness) but many patients voluntarily opt to not take that course due to fear of the Social taboo attached to HIV ( Moral code). In case of HIV , The Main challenge is to fight against taboo. Thus, to decode the issue of the Menstruation we have to first understand the two aspects of that - Physically impurity and Ritual impurity.

If you are going to sell Pad for free cost – It’s not going to make much change till the notion of the Impurity remains linked to the menstruation. So Government and society need to fight the battle on two fronts:-

1.     Physically impurity – Affordable pad, Incinerators etc.

2.     Ritual impurity – Social Campaign.