A taboo-free way to talk about periods

Periods.

Blood.

Menstruation.

Gross.

Secret.

Hidden.

Why?

A natural biological process

that every girl and woman
goes through every month

for about half of her life.

A phenomenon that is so significant

that the survival and propagation
of our species depends on it.

Yet we consider it a taboo.

We feel awkward
and shameful talking about it.

When I got my first periods,

I was told to keep it
a secret from others --

even from my father and brother.

Later when this chapter
appeared in our textbooks,

our biology teacher skipped the subject.

(Laughter)

You know what I learned from it?

I learned that it is really
shameful to talk about it.

I learned to be ashamed of my body.

I learned to stay
unaware about periods

in order to stay decent.

Research in various parts of India

shows that three out of every 10 girls
are not aware about menstruation

at the time of her first period.

And in some parts of Rajasthan

this number is as high as nine
out of 10 girls being unaware about it.

You'd be surprised to know

that most of the girls
that I have spoken to,

who did not know about periods
at the time of their first menstruation,

thought that they have got blood cancer

and they're going to die soon.

Menstrual hygiene is a very important risk
factor for reproductive tract infections.

But in India only 12 percent
of girls and women

have access to hygenic ways
of managing their periods.

If you do the math,

88 percent of girls and women use
unhygenic ways to manage their periods.

I was one of them.

I grew up in a small town
called Garhwa, in Jharkhand,

where even buying a sanitary
napkin is considered shameful.

So when I started getting my periods,

I began with using rags.

After every use I would
wash and reuse them.

But to store them,

I would hide and keep it
in a dark, damp place

so that nobody finds out
that I'm menstruating.

Due to repeated washing
the rags would become coarse

and I would often get rashes
and infections using them.

I wore these [... ] for five years
until I moved out of that town.

And I'm [very sure] that periods
brought in my life

those [of the] social restrictions

that are imposed upon our girls
and women when they're on their periods.

I think you all must be aware about it,

but I'll still list it
for the few who don't.

I was not allowed to touch or eat pickles.

I was not allowed to sit on the sofa
or some other family member's bed.

I had to wash my bed
sheet after every period,

even if it was not stained.

I was considered impure

and forbidden from worshipping or touching
any object of religious importance.

You'll find signposts outside temples

denying the entry
of menstruating girls and women.

Ironically,

most of the time it is the older woman

who imposes such restrictions
on younger girls in a family.

After all, they have grown up
accepting such restrictions as norms.

And in the absence of any intervention,

it is the myth and misconception

that propagate from
generation to generation.

During my years of work in this field,

I have even come across stories

where girls have to eat and wash
their dishes separately.

They're not allowed to take
baths during periods,

and in some households they are even
secluded from other family members.

About 85 percent of girls
and women in India

would follow one or more restrictive
customs on their periods every month.

Can you imagine what this does
to the self-esteem

and self-confidence of a young girl?

The psychological trauma
that this inflicts,

effecting her personality,

her academic performance

and every single aspect of growing up
during her early formative years?

I religiously followed all these
restrictive customs for 13 years ...

until a discussion
with my partner, Tuhin,

changed my perception about
menstruation forever.

In 2009, Tuhin and I were [posing]
our post graduation in design.

We fell in love with each other

and I was at ease
discussing periods with him.

Tuhin knew little about periods.

(Laughter)

He was astonished to know
that girls get painful cramps

and we bleed every month.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

He was completely shocked to know

about the restrictions that are imposed
upon menstruating girls and women

by their own families and their society.

In order to help me with my cramps,

he would go on the Internet
and learn more about menstruation.

When he shared his findings with me,

I realized how little I knew
about menstruation myself.

And many of my beliefs
actually turned out to be myths.

That's when we wondered:

if we, being so well educated,

were so ill-informed about menstruation,

there would be millions of girls out there
who would be ill-informed, too.

To study --

to understand the problem better,

I undertook a year-long research to study
the lack of awareness about menstruation

and the root cause behind it.

While it is generally believed

that menstrual unawareness and
misconception is a rural phenomena,

during my research,

I found that it is as much
an urban phenomena as well,

and it exists with the educated
upper class, also.

While talking to many
parents and teachers,

I found that many of them actually
wanted to educate girls about periods

when they have --

before they have started
getting their menstrual cycle.

And --

but they lacked the proper
means themselves.

And since it is a taboo,

they feel inhibition

and shameful in talking about it.

Girls nowadays get their periods
in classes six and seven,

but our educational curriculum

teaches girls about periods only
in standard eight and nine.

And since it is a taboo,

teachers still skip
the subject altogether.

So school does not
teach girls about periods,

parents don't talk about it --

where do the girls go?

Two decades ago and now --

nothing has changed.

I shared these finding with Tuhin

and we wondered:

what if we could create something

that would help girls understand
about menstruation on their own?

Something that would help
parents and teachers

talk about periods
comfortably to young girls.

During my research,

I was collecting a lot of stories.

These were stories of experiences
of girls during their periods.

These stories would make girls
curious and interested

in talking about menstruation
in the their close circle.

That's what we wanted.

We wanted something that would
make the girls curious

and drive them to learn about it.

We wanted to use these stories
to teach girls about periods.

So we decided to create a comic book,

where the cartoon characters
would enact these stories

and educate girls about menstruation
in a fun and engaging way.

To represent girls in their
different phases of puberty,

we had three characters.

Pinki, who has not gotten her period yet,

Jiya who gets her period during
the narrative of the book,

and Mira who has already
been getting her period.

There is a fourth character, Priya Didi.

Through her, girls come to know about
the various aspects of growing up

and menstrual hygiene management.

While making the book,

we took great care

that none of the illustrations
were objectionable in any way

and that it is culturally sensitive.

During our prototype testing,

we found that the girls loved the book.

They were keen on reading it

and knowing more and more
about periods on their own.

Parents and teachers were
comfortable in talking about periods

to young girls using the book,

and sometimes even boys were
interested in reading it.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

The comic book helped
in creating an environment

where menstruation ceased to be a taboo.

Many of the volunteers took this prototype

[and served] to educate girls

and take menstrual awareness workshops
in five different states in India.

And one of the volunteers

took this prototype
to educate young [monks]

and took it to this monastery in Ladakh.

We made the final version of the book,

called Menstrupedia Comic,

and launched in September last year.

And so far,

more than 4,000 girls have been
educated by using the book in India and --

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

And 10 different countries.

We are constantly translating the book
into different languages

and collaborating with local organizations

to make this book available
in different countries.

15 schools in different parts of India

have made this book as a part
of their school curriculum

to teach girls about menstruation.

(Applause)

I am amazed to see how volunteers,

individuals,

parents,

teachers,

school principles,

have come together

and taken this menstrual awareness
drive to their own communities,

have made sure that the girls
learn about periods at the right age,

and helped in breaking this taboo.

I dream of a future

where menstruation is not a curse,

not a disease,

but a welcoming change in a girl's life.

And I would --

(Applause)

And I would like to end this with
a small request to all the parents here.

Dear parents,

if you would be ashamed of periods,

your daughters would be, too.

So please be period positive.

(Laughter)

Thank you

(Applause)