PINK LEGAL NAAZ

    Period Poverty- Social Taboo or Practical Problem?          “Shhhhh…. don’t tell any anyone you’re on your period!” “Do not enter the kitchen, food will be served to you in your room where you have to stay cooped up for 3 days!!” “Don’t come in front of your dad and grandfather, you’re impure!” I am pretty sure, anyone reading this blog must have either heard someone else say these lines to a girl while she is menstruating or be the victim themselves of these patriarchal notions of menstruation. I think it’s high time we erase this taboo around menstruation and and treat it as a natural thing just as much as we treat the sun and the moon. Menstruation is a natural process that involves discharge of blood from the vagina and usually starts in girls when aged between 11-14. This process continues until about 50 years and is termed as ‘menopause’.           It is important to understand th...

  One's mental health must be given as much priority as one’s physical health. When we talk about period poverty, the connotations of mental health are no different. Period poverty essentially has an economic factor associated with it, but how intrinsic could the nature of this crisis get when one witnesses its physiological, psycho-sexual and cultural edges?      Period poverty does not merely stick to the idea of the discomfort of women bleeding during their menstruation period or not being able to afford the essential resources. Rather, it extends to the implications that it has on the mental facet which breaks the flow of the smooth functioning of daily life.   Social burden: society protects or exploits?      In light of the position of women in our society, while many activists are fighting for women’s menstrual rights (for instance, menstrual leave), women, who can’t break free from the firm grasp of poverty, are completely oblivious to suc...

  Period Poverty – Why and How   Period poverty by definition is the want of adequate access to menstrual hygiene products- of all types. It is essential to understand that period poverty is not limited to the inaccessibility of sanitary napkins but it is definitely a constituent. Lack of sanitary napkins puts women in a position where they seek for alternatives like rags, straw, sand among others – all potentially dangerous substances other than being very obviously not enough protection. This is also where the notion of embarrassment comes in – an unconscious attempt to hide a natural bodily function from the rest of the world, the world of men, the belief that it is an impurity to be hidden away. ·         The lack of knowledge surrounding menstrual hygiene is the origin of a problem that puts a question  mark on numerous women’s lives. A lot of times girls are not informed enough about the menstrual cycle and their body and thus, a...