Why The Conversation Around Periods Has To Get Louder

Somewhere between the whispers of “I got my Japanese flag,” to “You can’t pray on your period,” I stopped caring. I always sought societal validation, just like anyone else would have. Especially, when all the adults I knew pretended that getting my period made me a woman. I believed it for the longest time. I remember intently watching so many shows and movies where mothers would tell their daughters, “You’re a woman now,” or “Welcome to womanhood,” but also told them, “Don’t pray,” and “Don’t talk about it.”

It’s ironic, isn’t it? How something that supposedly signifies that you’re a woman also means that you can’t do any of those things that you’ve always loved doing. It’s like womanhood is made of barriers and restrictions. As if it entails feeling like you’re disgusting and impure for the entire length of the time that you spend bleeding.

I’m really privileged to even be able to write this today because while my biggest issue was not being able to bleed and live like any other day, other menstruators could not access period products. When I was crying because I was a ‘woman’, others lived in fear because they wouldn’t be considered ‘man enough’. When I was complaining about how uncomfortable my pad felt, a menstruator wished that they could afford a pad. No, I’m not invalidating my struggles or anyone’s struggles who might be similar to mine. What I’m saying is that so many menstruators face things I never would have imagined more than eight months ago.

I’m really privileged to even be able to write this today because while my biggest issue was not being able to bleed and live like any other day, other menstruators could not access period products.

Aiding menstruators The Period Society

I’ve been working with aiding menstruators to get access to period products with The Period Society. We’re a youth-led nonprofit organisation, working towards ending the Menstrual stigma in India using advocacy, distribution, education and awareness. We’ve created inclusive sex-education modules that we implement across our projects and work towards making young people like me dedicated to the cause of ending period poverty.

Something that really sticks out to me is one opportunity that I had to interact with a mother of a 13 year old girl, just one year younger than me, who was grateful to have just been given the opportunity to access period products. The opportunities to meet people of local communities and really understand their struggles has been something very close to my heart. It has opened me up to people, perspectives and empathy - and every time that I meet them, I learn a little more.

One of the first distributions that I had the opportunity to facilitate was one with multiple sex workers across India’s largest Red Light District - Kamathipura. Sex workers have faced massive challenges to their livelihood due to COVID-19. With social distancing norms, unsanitary brothels, and no way to earn their daily wage,  their right to social welfare has been impacted severely. Menstrual products aren’t even necessities to most and accessibility and education is a tremendous problem. With many of my virtual interactions with them, I learned that many weren’t even able to afford pads, and often just used cloths and sponges instead.

Working with sex-workers has changed me in so many different ways

The fact that I actually learned about their existence to their struggles and trauma, to being able to laugh, communicate and learn from and with them. While I may never understand their struggles first hand, I promise to continue to do whatever I can to aid them and provide them with education, accessibility and understanding.

Another project that is really close to my heart is something that is ongoing. We’ve been working with creating lines of distribution and education of period products between the Trans Community of Mumbai: another community that is severely impacted due to COVID-19. I've been in touch with many transgender menstruators and am coordinating a successful supply of period products and menstrual health education - something that so many transgender menstruators haven’t had the safe access to.

This didn’t start easy. This started with a lot of ‘hush-hush’ when I spoke about periods in my house, hiding the pad under my jacket and pretending I wasn’t bleeding out of my vagina just so that I could go for Durga Puja. My period was something that I refused to ever consider a part of me, beautiful, bare and pure - and once I started helping others realise that the crimson-red drops they bleed are just as normal as any other blood that may trickle down their fingers, I started believing it myself. I started believing in the sheer blessedness of my blood, and realised, “Nahi, logoon ko baat karne do.” (No, let people talk). It’s not my blood or my seemingly dauntless opinions that are wrong, it’s what I’ve been conditioned into believing.

If I’m so privileged that I can educate and provide menstruators with the necessary tools, how can I not do it? Periods have been stigmatised for way too long now. The conversation around periods has to be loud. We need to shout. It’s time we put a period to the stigma. Period.

Anisha Bhatia is a 14 year old student based in Mumbai, India. She is the Head of Communications at The Period Society. The views expressed are the author's own.