In simpler terms, ‘Period’ is when a woman bleeds from her vagina for 3 to 6 days. It’s a normal body function all women go through from age of approx. 12 to 50 years.
In today’s world we can see a lot of news, advertisements, and awareness around periods. Spreading awareness and education about periods/menstruation is helping our society to accept menstruation as a normal process. It’s a good thing that we do not want to associate any shame or taboo towards menstruation.
‘Accepting menstruation as a normal process’ and ‘neglecting menstruation because it’s a normal biological process’ are two different things. Today you would see society neglecting menstruation and issues associated with it because it is a normal biological process. Today’s women are expected to behave and work as if periods do not exist.
In today’s article I want to share my opinion on periods and social practices around periods especially from my homeland – India
Struggles of a Modern Women around Period
Many village women still follow some of the rules like not cooking food, not touching pickle, and not worshipping God during periods.
These rules are big ‘NO’ for working and educated women. I have never followed any rule growing up except for entering puja room. None of my friends followed any rule. I haven’t seen a single girl from today’s generation following old age protocols when it comes to period except from worshiping god. This might be different in rural areas though.
Every month, women like me get up in the morning for those 3 days wishing that they had chance to sleep a little bit longer. They didn’t catch continuous sleep at night due to bleeding. They had to get up to change their pad. She may choose the XXL pads, but the liquid finds its way out at least once during the period. This is just the start of the day. Let’s try to understand some of issues today’s women face during their period.
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Struggle of following the routine
In Urban India, we have normalized periods so much that we behave as if women don’t bleed at all. Sanitary pad companies have promoted their products in such a way that society has started believing that girls can live like free birds after using sanitary products. Periods won’t interrupt their life even a little. The advertisement world has forced us to think that – all the issues with women’s menstruation cycle are solved by Sanitary products. And we want women to work and follow the same routine whether on period or not.
- Working women are truly mortified ones. They finish cooking, washing and run to catch the bus to their work location. Slay their work for 8-9 hours. They come back, freshen up and head again into the kitchen even during the first 3 days of periods while continuously bleeding.
- A homemaker gets up early in the morning and prepares a tiffin box for her kids and husband. She continues with household work throughout the day with all the discomfort associated with bleeding.
- Sweeping, Mopping, Washing, Cleaning continues even during period.
- Sportswomen, military women continue their training even when they bleed as if their bodies are same as of their male counterparts.
- Life is really hard for daily wage women workers who work on construction sites, field work or in factories.
Today’s modern society is expecting women to work equally hard on her periods. Have we even tried understanding how women survive these days?
- Half of the girls from my team in the office complained about period pains during 1-2 days of their cycle. They would share it to me freely as I was female lead. Some of them ended with medicines to stop the period pain. Though it is very harmful to take pain killers regularly every month, these had become routine for them. Pain killers have many side-effects and can damage the women health. Even many doctors would advise against regular use of painkillers. But would the deadlines in corporate world extend by few days for women in pain? Certainly Not.
- In almost all houses, all household works are done by women- working or homemaker, whether on periods or not. Some are fortunate enough to have some help in the form of ‘Kaamwali Bai’ or house help. Elaborate Indian cooking easily takes around 2 hours per meal depending on size of family. A bleeding lady stands continuously in the kitchen cooking or doing other chores. All while having pain in stomach & blood dripping from vagina. Do you think it’s a very comfortable thing to do? Certainly Not. It is so uncomfortable that many times we just want to go and snuggle up in bed. But instead, we take a chair, sit for a few minutes & continue with the work. who will do the housework if lady of the house doesn’t do it. Right?
- Many of my female relatives work in fields in scorching heat even during their period. It’s a relief for them that they don’t have to cook at home as villagers still follow some of the traditions related to periods. But they still do many other tasks. My close relative has so much period pain that she directly goes to bed after coming from field. One of the relative has had her uterus removed due to some complications.
- For girl students, many times their period date coincides with exams. They dread this scenario but still nail the exams. Do we ever appreciate them and speak kind words of understanding?
- We do see lot of sportswomen breaking world records, getting medals for nation. We appreciate them and move on. But these women have to undergo rigorous physical trainings. Many times, their male coaches fail to understand female bodies. What if their monthly period arrives on the day of competition? They are given medicines to delay their periods. Are these healthy? Certainly Not. They mess with their hormones and take a toll on their reproductive health. You could refer to these articles for a proof.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/30927245
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/opinion/nike-running-mary-cain.html
2.Travelling & lack of clean toilets
Gone are the days when travel plans were cancelled for a woman who was bleeding. Nowadays, women on periods trave to their work, do overnight travels, travel on trains and airplanes.
Washrooms in airports are certainly clean. But how about washrooms from trains or the public washrooms? We are expected to change our pads in these washrooms and continue with the journey.
These unclean, unhygienic washrooms should be a big NO for bleeding women. Women are most susceptible to diseases when they are on the periods. Using unhygienic washrooms, visiting crowded places certainly increases their risk of getting infections.
3. Period Cramps, PCOD, PCOS, Fibroids and other health ailments
We have normalized period crams as something which comes free along with period. But do you know that severe period cramps are not normal. It’s an indication of some other health ailments.
Also, the regular period cramps you observe are result of hormonal imbalance.
We see lot of modern-day women suffering from PCOD, PCOS and other conditions related to female reproduction. Most of these issues occur due to wrong lifestyle choices, stress and resulting hormonal imbalance.
With all the education towards women heath, equality, women empowerment & so – called ‘better lifestyle’ shouldn’t we have a smaller number of issues/diseases with female health? Why are we seeing a noticeable increase with such issues?
The traditional approach
Let’s now discuss and understand about traditional practices in India with regards to menstruation
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Do not enter the kitchen
Traditionally women were not allowed to enter kitchen and cook food when on periods. They were not even allowed to touch or serve food. Traditional Indian cooking involved lot of manual work including – carrying water from well, grinding with grinding stones, getting wood for cooking, and creating fire. It was all a hard work.
I promise no women would deny 3 days compulsory rest in those days when offered as part of tradition.
Even for the generation before us, things were similar. My mother, aunts & neighbors dint enter kitchen on those 3 days. I have seen my uncle do the cooking for 3 days with the help of my cousins. My neighbor who otherwise never entered the kitchen, cooked meals for morning & afternoon before he left for office. In the evening, kids would clean & cut vegetables under supervision of mother & kept things ready for him to cook. My mom took help from my aunts staying nearby and helped them in return when it was their turn. There was an increase in the number of nuclear families by then, so help was limited to husbands, kids or mother-in-law.
Still, the generation of our mothers & aunts did their best to follow this tradition.
2. Don’t worship God.
Traditionally, women are not allowed to touch idols or photos of God or to do any kind of worship for 3 days. Other days, women would spend at-least 20-30 mins in puja and other ceremonies.
Modern women hardly get time to fold her hand and pray for 2 mins.
3. No manual labor, no head bath, dietary restrictions.
As per ‘Sushrut Samhita’ women in menses aren’t allowed to do any ‘fatiguing work’. She shouldn’t shed tears, nor should she bathe. She shouldn’t do tasks that involve running. Even no sleeping during the day.
Manual labor – Any form of manual strenuous work isn’t allowed.
Dietary restrictions – She should eat fruits, vegetables, and food with less spices.
4. Celebrating first period of a girl
In southern India and parts of Assam, Odisha girls first period is celebrated lavishly. They are bestowed with a lot of gifts. This kind of celebration brings a positive approach towards periods in young girls.
Basically, in Indian culture menstruating women are encouraged to rest and take time for self-care during their periods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHtqcWAtzOM
Some unpopular opinions & conclusive words
1. Women’s immunity is at lowest during those 3 days. It is very easy for her to pick on the infections. To protect her health, there were rules that restricted her from attending public gatherings or travelling. In today’s scenario we cannot enforce these rules, but we want our family and our employers to understand this fact and help them avoid travel and crowded places whenever possible.
Strenuous work, intense exercise during periods can disrupt hormonal balance and in turn affect your menstrual cycle. Why not stay away from it if we have an option?
Well, it might be difficult for women in construction field or manual laborer. Also, for sportswomen, skipping trainings during menses might not be feasible. What can we do in this case? Here we need to spread awareness about menstruation and women body. Women bodies need some rest during those days. There are talks around about menstrual leaves. It might look like a foreign concept. But in Indian culture we have been giving rest to mensurating women since ages.
We may argue that this can result in decrease in productivity & people might not want to hire females. This issue can be solved by compensating for lost hours on other days of the month.
2. Housewives work equally hard throughout the day. Their work hours are uncounted, and they are never paid. Its time the men of the house or the senior female members understand that these women too need those 3 days’ rest. Ignoring her reproductive health will create issues in the future for her and in turn for family. As stated earlier, our previous generations have done it. Why can’t we? Sometimes I just feel… people ignore her issues as they are getting all work done by her on the name of empowerment & taboo eradication.
3. Diet– women should focus on their diet during period as well as for few days before period. Our tradition recommends using Jaggery, Sesame seeds, Turmeric during period. As well as avoiding food with high spice and salt content would help avoid bloating. Many women tend to neglect Self-care as they are busy doing task for others. Use this time for self-care.
4. Bath & God Worship – I am no researcher. But quick google search tells me that “Water pressure can stop your flow temporarily while you swim.” This can explain no head bath before 3 days rule.
Also, there is no harm in not doing gods worship for 3 days. Why not spend the same time in introspection or meditation. We want to enter temples just to prove our culture wrong. What if we have been understanding our culture in a wrong way.
I would strongly recommend you go through videos of ‘Sinu Joseph’ on YouTube. She explains all these practices with the proper reasoning. If the claims of this lady are even 50% correct, we have ruined our health & culture by our own hands under western influence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJdQyWeaYWU
Periods weren’t a taboo in India, just to eradicate the practices around periods we have been calling it as taboo. These practices were brought in ancient times for better health of women. Some of the practices may not fit in today’s era. For example, in some regions we have menstrual huts. These huts lack necessary amenities. We can’t expect a girl to stay in menstrual hut without washroom, hot water & other basic amenities. We must understand that these rituals were bought into practice when India was richest country in the world. Today there is a need to understand the motive behind these practices. And not to follow them blindly. But implement them in the most efficient way.
Today we have limited menstrual awareness to menstrual sanitary products. Changing from cotton clothes to sanitary pads, sanitary pads to tampons, tampons to menstrual cups. There are side effects of every product. Giving her sanitary pads won’t solve all her problems.
Indian women are breaking every barrier and making our nation proud in sports, science, politics & every other field that you can name.
It’s time we give her some consideration. At the end, she is also a human being, and her body is different from male. India is a country where women has been worshipped since ages. We shouldn’t lose our roots in the process of modernization.
Social acceptance around menstruation, awareness about women body & health, reintroduction of menstrual rest and self-care is what today’s women need.
