“Do you know the word ‘Period’? Pehle to suna hoga, hai na?” The girl asked.

Nobody replied.

When the girl asked again the group of boys that had they ever heard of the word ‘Period’, they started seeing each other, and then someone replied,

“Wahi jiske khatam hone ke baad bell bajta hai, wahi na?” One of his friends whispered, “arey nahi yaar, woh ladki wale ke bareme puch rahi hai..”, and started laughing.

Nobody answered her properly. Unable to find it out, the girl left that place. 

Then she went to a school, entered into a classroom and asked the same question to the boys present there. That educated boys, started laughing and buzzing with each others. Nobody replied smoothly.

That’s the problem of this society we are living now. We know everything, but, we never spell them. We have always been told that, some words are not to be pronounced in front of everyone. They are only to be discussed in your own circle. Well, the circle can include only girls or only boys. But not both of them, together. As girls feel ashamed of discussing anything in front of boys about this biological blessing.

This is a taboo we are facing in India. But, the air of change has come, and a transformation has started to breathe.

Thanks to Arunanchalam Murugantham, for being the pathfinder of breaking this stereotype that ‘Menstruation’ is something that is only related with girls, as it’s a reason behind the reason we become a complete ‘woman’.

Does it really relates with women only? was the word invented for only women? And not men? Why? I think, there is no such rule to be mentioned that there is some words only for men and some for women only. So, topics like Period, Menstruation, Menstruation Hygene everything should be discussed with everyone, irrespective the gender. It’s a matter to be handled with wisdom and care. We need it.

Sneha, a girl from Katikheda village in western Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district, felt the need of women education and women empowerment in their village. She also noticed

A film on menstruation, set in rural India, titled Period. End of Sentence, has won the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category at the 91st Academy Awards. India certainly has its issues, as all countries do, but this documentary is kickstarting a fresh narrative, one that focuses on positive changes in a country long viewed through the rest of the world’s sorrow.

The documentary feature is set in Hapur village outside Delhi, where women lead a quiet revolution as they fight against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation. They fight against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation. “Period. End of Sentence.” – a documentary short directed by Rayka Zehtabchi — tells their story. For generations, these women didn’t have access to pads, which lead to health problems and girls missing school or dropping out entirely. But when a sanitary pad machine is installed in the village, the women learn to manufacture and market their own pads, empowering the women of their community. They name their brand “FLY,” because they want women “to soar.” Their flight is, in part, enabled by the work of high school girls half a world away, in California, who raised the initial money for the machine and began a non-profit called “The Pad Project”, started by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton.

There has been an increased focus on period hygiene in India, which was also the subject of a mainstream Bollywood movie Padman, starring Akshay Kumar in the lead role in a biopic on Arunachalam Muruganantham, who started making low-cost pads in his village despite being ostracised.

Despite the subject matter – a taboo which exists all over the world from the UK to Nepal, the Unites States to Kenya, and the devastating impact that it has had on women and their social standing – and despite the battle that these women and girls continually face in order to claim basic sanitary products, “Period. End of Sentence.” is a story of hope and celebration.