Period Taboos: Time To Say ‘Period'?

Spherule Foundation’ is leveraging on social media and crowdfunding to start an awareness program on menstrual hygiene in schools, colleges, orphanages, slums, villages and communities across the country.

- Jyoti Bhagat

Menstrual cycle is a natural process which is linked with a woman’s body. Still many of us follow restrictions during our menstrual cycles, whether it’s in our homes, our relatives’ homes or at any religious event. The freedom of women continues to be in the hands of dominant social cultue and rituals.

In many cultures like in Assam, the menstrual cycle was seen as a gift and when a girl would menstruate for the first time, it would be celebrated in public. But this again is a problematic view as the menstrual cycle was seen as a boon for reproduction. Even when people celebrated it, they had a reductionist view that a woman’s ultimate goal in life is reproduction. Indian women perform rituals during the Ambubachi festival at Kamakhya temple in Guwahati.