YES I BLEED

I got very cheerful and optimistic friends. most them are like birds always ready to fly high up in the boundless blue sky but yesterday something weird happened. one of my close buddies was a bit off colored , on asking her the reason I got a reply that, "yrr I just got my periods I don't even have a sanitary napkin will you please arrange one for me. What will happen if I will get a stain and what if someone get to see it?",for a second I was out of senses. The only thing going in my mind was why do we hide our periods when they form an important part of our biological system. I came home went for my evening classes again but thinking of that incident didn't let me concentrate so I used Internet for knowing the root cause of hiding periods. the reason why we are told to hide our periods from the day they hit us and the same teachings we forward to our future generation.

I got a variety of views on this, a number of thought processes and a number of myths.
Luckily a month after that incident I got a chance to visit a small village up the hills. there I met a few young girls and grown up ladies. I wanted to know their view about this process the reply was worse than expected. Initially they were shy and never wanted to talk about this . Later on we discussed about menstrual hygiene and we came to know that sanitary napkins was a new word for them. They told how they use cloth and other traditional preventive measures and the stress, the burden of overflowing always lying over their head.
Researching more about Indian menstrual hygiene I found that in India, 62% women in the age group 15-24 years still rely on a cloth during periods .About 43 percent of Indian women do not have access to sanitary essentials at the beginning of periods, while 36 percent felt uncomfortable in buying them with other customers around. Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70% more common among these women.Studies by UNICEF show that 28% of female students do not attend school when on their period due to the unavailability of hygienic absorbent materials.

Something which was more shocking was knowing that a number of girls withdraw their daily jobs during their periods. Is period useless or a sign of embarrassment? I wish I had no periods!! Almost every girl has sighed it one or the other moment in her life but Periods are a lot of things: It is a mark of femininity and fertility, and a huge part of life for most women.They are sometimes messy and painful, and they are at times inconvenient and annoying. One thing they are not is shameful. Period shaming is widespread and insidious but how it all started how a natural cycle turned out to be a taboo ? As charity this mentality also begins at home neither a mother discusses over this with her son nor a daddy buys sanitary napkin for his daughter. With time the same thought process is inherited by the kids and the same is passed on from generation to generation and with time this burden of shame goes on increasing. Also some old believes and myths add a topping onto this stereotypical thinking.

Isn't it time to bring a downfall to this up going graph ? Living in 21st century do we still need to be ashamed of our body? Do we follow all the rules and laws passed by our forefathers? So why we pretend to be a 'sanskari person' by following this. We follow ancient cultures only till they don't harm the present us we put a foot back when we find something undesired so why can't we eradicate this period shame from our modern society. For empowering girls we need to make them bold and for this we must take initiatives to remove period shame. 
Its not periods or menstrual health conditions which leads a female to leave her jobs it is us, yes we are the ones who create such environment for a girl that she eventually wants to sit at home during her periods. Young boys how many of you have ever gazed at one of your classmates spotted dress and thought of helping her in any way? I guess very few. For the development of this globe both the genders have to contribute equal but this is not possible if period shame remains prevalent the way it is now. We being the younger generation must fight these basic drawbacks of our cultures and work for the betterment of humanity. Imagine a world when no girl has to WHISPER FOR WHISPERS .
the day females will really get basic freedom. the day she will really stay free while using stay free. The day she will rise up without any burden they day she will remain healthy and her life expectancy will increase. The day we will stop that age old practice of black poly bags.
I request to all the boys instead of gifting teddy bears to your girlfriend gift her chocolates during her period believe me it will make her much more happier and young girls there is nothing to hide about your natural cycle you are blessed to have it feel proud to share about it.  
                                             BLEEDING PERIOD ≠ PAUSE

            YES I BLEED AND I AM PROUD OF IT