Awareness prog organised
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 21 2015 :
Menstruation is the one word that text books never taught us.
A word that is a taboo in itself.
How many women have dared to speak on menstruation without having a guilty feeling at the back of the mind as though a blunder has been committed? And how many will except the blunder? .
These were the issues touched upon by international trainer Urmila Chanam during her presentation titled Breaking the Silence 2015: From Shame to Pride at the media interaction cum awareness programme on menstrual hygiene organised by the Nation's People at Manipur Press Club today.
Urmila said that the reason around the myths, taboos and stigma around menstruation can be attributed to patriarchy.
Many communities around the world associate menstruation with impurity and the pollution of the sacred.
She added that women are barred from entering kitchen and temples and touching and even eating anything meant for worship.
Urmila strongly advocated for the end of such stigma stating that such subjugation has created wider gap in gender equality.
The myths and taboos around menstruation has resulted in total silence on the subject of hygiene among women.
An astounding 88 percent of the total women in India, thanks to the myths, use unhygienic material like old rags, tissue paper, newspaper and even ash to hide their menstrual cycle, she said and added that 72,000 women die every year in India from cervical cancer caused by the unhygienic practice during period.
Urmila concluded with a message inviting journalists and other participants to spread the awareness that 'menstrual blood is not impure' .