Girl Gets First Period, Brother Kills Her Assuming Affair: Call For Menstruation Education!

In Maharashtra’s Thane, a 30-year-old man killed his 12-year-old sister over suspicion that she had a sexual relationship with someone after noticing blood stains on her dress. The girl had actually started her menarche, the beginning of menstruation, a few days ago.

According to officials, the girl has no knowledge about menstruation and didn’t know that she had gotten her first period. So the bloodstains were visible on her clothing. The accused, who was working as a security guard, got suspicious and questioned the girl, alleging that she might have been sexually involved with someone and was bleeding from her first intercourse.

Man Mistakes Sister's Periods As Affair

The girl, who was living with her brother and sister-in-law, had no knowledge of menstruation and didn’t know how to explain the reason she was bleeding. The accused had gotten angry and burned her mouth, back, and other parts of her body with tongs. When the girl was taken to the hospital later, she was declared "brought dead."

The accused has been charged with Section 302 under the Indian Penal Code at the Ulhasnagar police station, where he hails from.

Crimes like these happen because menstruation, even today, remains one of the most taboo topics. While it’s understandable that the 12-year-old was unaware of periods, it’s strange that the 30-year-old brother, who was married, presumed that the blood stains were from sexual intercourse. Didn’t the thought that his 12-year-old sister might have started her period occur to him? Was an adult married man that ignorant about periods? Or was he just a misogynistic, overly suspicious man?

While only further investigations can reveal that, it’s sad that the 12-year-old girl couldn’t defend herself just because she had no knowledge about menstruation. This reflects the taboo around periods in our society, even in today’s time and age. A girl child could get her period anytime between the ages of 10 and 15, sometimes sooner. So, why didn’t anyone feel the necessity to educate the girl on menstruation?

Why didn’t the girl’s sister-in-law talk about it? If this girl was in school, why didn’t the school start imparting period education? Society at large keeps period talk a hush-hush topic until the day a girl gets her period. Until then, nobody talks to her about it. The women in her family who get periods don’t give proper explanations and evade questions. "Why teach all that to a child?" is the common thought in society.

We need to impart knowledge about menstruation to girls as soon as they reach a stage where they can understand the concept. It may vary from one child to another, and parents should be able to determine if and when their child is ready. This applies to both girls and boys. Parents need to keep imparting the right and age-appropriate explanations about periods as and when needed or whenever their child comes up with a question. Evading the question, feeding them false information, or getting angry at them is not going to help.

Schools should also take it as their responsibility to impart knowledge on menstruation to girls above the age of nine. The school could discuss it at parent-teacher meetings, gather opinions, and develop age-appropriate awareness programmes for both girls and boys. If this girl had known that she had gotten her first period, she might have been able to defend herself and would still have been alive.

Boys should also be taught about periods, and the concept should be normalised so that children are not baffled at some point or misled by the wrong information. Why should we be embarrassed to teach children, both boys and girls, about periods, which is a very natural phenomenon? It’s high time we got over the age-old beliefs, broke down the stigma, and started openly discussing periods.

Suggested Reading: Women Hesitate To Even Utter Menstruation Or Periods In Public, Why?

Views expressed by the author are their own, not the platform's