I have been a student of biology. But I am not so sure whether there is any other species of the animal kingdom, where the female goes through the menstrual cycle and if there is, whether the physical discomfort is as pronounced or the period as long. If, for the other thousands of species, nature has evolved a method of disintegrating the unfertilized egg, without any fanfare, why then, have we women, been specifically selected to go through such an ordeal every month for years and years? Why, if the other cells in our body , that have outlived its utility, can get expelled from the body in less obvious and unobtrusive manner, has the ovum to bleed its way out? Why don’t the males of our species have to undergo a similar process for discharging their millions of unutilized sperms? I’m sure there must be answers. Nature is supposed to be impartial, right?

    In many places, in South India, the onset of puberty of a girl, was celebrated ceremoniously, dressed in new attire, feast, blowing of conch shells etc. I am not sure whether this tradition is still being followed. The celebration in fact, served the purpose of an announcement that the girl was now of marriageable age, ready to reproduce, that is. Suitors would now be welcomed.

    In many societies, there is a label of impurity attached to a menstruating woman and during those four or five days, she is not allowed to cook food or mingle with the rest of the household. She is supposed to eat and sleep in isolation. Sometimes, I have wondered whether this particular custom of segregation, did not, in fact, allow the women, a welcome break from the tediousness of their daily chores. The taboo of being restricted  from religious customs , during this period , exists in most of the religions. Christianity may be the only exception. Amongst muslims, menstruating women are not permitted to do the namaz or touch the Koran. They are also not required to fast during those days , in the month of Ramzan.

     Ever wondered how women living in extreme poverty,  in the villages and those living in the crowded urban slums, coped with this monthly “event”? How the lack of a few pieces of clean cloth often played havoc with their health? In most cases, the same bits of cloth are washed and rewashed and used repeatedly, month after month. In the slums, where whole families share a single room, where the use of  toilets have to be shared by several families, the women have to surreptiously dry the cloth under some other bigger garment, out of sight and out of sunlight. Very often , these women suffer from infections that the lack of sufficient hygiene causes and very often, these infections too, are not attended to in time.

   And why would anyone want to spend too much thought on something so insignificant as a woman’s periods, amidst all the other burning issues that take centrestage from time to time?

    Well, it did manage to catch Anshu Gupta’s attention. Anshu Gupta , of Delhi, gave up a cushy job in the Escorts Group, to start “Goonj”, an organization, which was kickstarted with a collection of clothes from his personal wardrobe and which now collects and distributes clothes  to the needy , all over the country.  Read more about Anshu and all the projects of Goonj by logging on to the following link.

www.goonj.org

      In particular , do read about what Anshu had to say in “When I take an initiative” a talk given by him at the India International centre in New Delhi in October, 2004.

      Goonj has now launched a project , “Easy” ,of making simple napkins out of old cloth and distributing it amongst the women in villages and urban slums. Saksham, an NGO, working in Nithari village Noida, has also recently started distributing these napkins amongst the women there. Priced at only Rs.3/- per packet, the women initially were extremely reluctant to spend even that little, on something that they thought or have been conditioned to think, as not something that should figure on their list of priorities. It is taking a lot of convincing to get them to understand the advantages of paying attention to their own health, but it is slowly catching on.

     A friend asked me why I wrote only about Mylamma and the coconut –tree climbing women. “It can’t be that you have not come across any men that have inspired you”, he said. Of course there are lots of men I admire in various fields. But may be , what inspires me personally, is a certain kind of committment to something outside oneself (eventually of course ,what one does for others is also something that we do for ourselves) and a sensitivity about issues that get ignored, a willingness to take on something for the greater common good, swimming against the common tide; someone who just goes ahead and does it without worrying about it’s results. I did salute Manjhi, the mountain Man for that reason, I told my friend and here, I salute Anshu Gupta. May his tribe increase!