This October, Newsroom went around and conducted a survey in the Senior Programme about menstruation.
We interviewed 72 boys, and out of those, only 12 (twelve!) had ever had a conversation about menstruation with either parent. And grandfathers? Neither girls nor boys reported to have had any kind of talk with their grandfather.
Unsurprisingly, almost half of the boys (48.6%) interviewed admitted to have made an "are you on period" joke on seeing a girl upset, and 31.4% of the girls did too. (70% of the girls reported to have been on the receiving end of that at some point in their life or the other.)
Yet the picture is not all negative. A lot of people learned about the menstrual cycle in school in safe spaces, and 85%+ girls have said to have talked to seniors or friends about their period.
There's been progress in the last generation (0% grandfathers to 38% fathers having talked to their kids about menstruation); this bodes well for the next generation — these fathers will become grandfathers and thus we will (hopefully) be living in a more conscious, safe and aware community.
This visible change is brought about by the women and men who've been working to destigmatize menstruation. Read about NGOs working towards this here, here and here.
This Menstrual Month, OATHS&EATHS has held workshops for grades 8 to 10, striving to create safe environments within the classroom to talk about menstruation. Now, it's our turn to keep this going. It's our turn to call out the next PMS joke we hear, and reconsider when we jokingly say "itni sad kyu, period pe hai kya?"
It's easy to stay in a bubble, but it's necessary to always push harder. If we convince ourselves we're comfortable with the way things are (where 5 out of 80 boys stated on record that they believe girls on their period are unclean), then that's how things will be.
We, at Newsroom, pledge to go out of our comfort zones to try and help make menstruation safer for girls and women, starting in our immediate community. We hope you do too.
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