Menstruation has been and is still subjected to a lot of cultural shame and is associated with several kinds of taboos and myths. Around the world, menstruating women are put into a corner, literally and metaphorically. They are not allowed to cook food lest they contaminate it. They are not allowed to attend school or classes as the society believes such women will spread their impurity to other girls. One of the most prominent taboo is not allowing menstruating women to enter holy places. In countries like India, where billions of people worship goddesses, they become hypocrites when they forbid these women to enter holy places or attend holy ceremonies.
However, one of the most important problems that needs a prompt solution is period poverty. This situation arises when menstruating women do not access to basic menstrual products such as menstrual pads, menstrual cups, tampons, and pantiliners. Period poverty is also recognised by the lack of menstrual waste disposal methods and the unawareness and lack of education about this natural problem that women face all over the world. Lack of menstrual and normal hygiene leads to many reproductive and urinary tract infections such as Candidiasis. In India, approximately 12% of its 355 million menstruating women cannot afford period products. One out of 10 girls in Africa miss school because they don’t have access to sanitary products and safe and private toilets to use at school.
Caroline Lipski, contributing writer to the student news website of Saint Louis University, notes that one out of five girls is out of school during their periods according to the feminine product brand, Always. She highlights the lack of period products at educational institutions and the negative effect of period poverty on the education of the feminine gender. The world needs to take a step back and realise its failure of accepting this natural phenomenon in women, without which the advancement of a lineage or hierarchy is impossible. Every woman should be free to menstruate with the best possible comfort she can acquire. And the global society must help to eradicate the cultural shame associated with menstruation.
Dibyasha Das