Period. End of Sentence.

16th Feb, 2019 (Saturday).

Mood: It's raining and it's chilly. After a tiring Saturday, I am now browsing Netflix to watch something light and then I find this documentary (which is advertised as Oscar nominated) and is only 25 min long. 

I've started the video (just because of it's length) and I didn't have the slightest idea that this documentary was related to menstrual hygiene in anyway. As I'm very much interested in this topic, I'll be sharing how I feel about this short movie as I go through it i.e. I've both the tabs (Netflix and my blogger page) open for now.

Writing as I'm watching,

--It's about the women living in a village which is only 60 km away from the capital city of India, Delhi. 

--Young girls giggle when they're asked about PERIOD!! 

--A lady, may be in her late 30s or early 40s talks about the "BAD BLOOD" shed during the monthly routine,

--A woman, who looks young, mentions babies are born because of period,

--Now, a male interviewer is asking about period with a bunch of young boys and they're all shy. One of them replied, "Are you talking about the classes period i.e. when bell rings and classes end"? Now they're referring menstruation as women's illness. 

--Currently, a classroom scene, where girls and boys are seated in different rows of benches and everyone is shy when the teacher asks them to raise their hands if they've ever heard of periods,

--A girl has her bowed down her head and she is so ashamed or is blushing that she hasn't even faced the camera once. Her friend, who is sitting next to her is hopelessly timid, rolling her eyes in shame and answering the teacher's question on the normal phenomenon,

--A lady is now describing her challenges during her periods. She's describing the difficulty she had to face because she had to go too far to change the wet clothe she used during menstruation so that none of the men/boys could catch her in action and though she waited for some miracle to happen, there was no change in any infrastructure and eventually she had to drop out of school,

--The ladies say they aren't allowed to go to temple-(any temple) during menstruation,

--There is Sneha's story going on right now who wants to join the police force just because she wants to save herself from marriage. She doesn't believe in forbidding the females to enter the temples as the Goddesses are themselves females!!!

--Rekha takes you to a sugarcane field and talks about burying the cotton cloth in dark which she had used during her periods but Ruby and Jackie, the dogs, dig them up and take them to streets which embarrasses her. Then the field disposed with clothes and plastics is shown,

--Shabana, talks about lots still need to be changed as earlier the women were told they can use any clean cloth during their menses, but now, sanitary pad is advised,

--Then the man who invented low cost sanitary napkin, Arunanchalan, is seen in screen where he talks about the menstruation taboo. In India, a daughter doesn't talk about it with her mother and neither a wife talks about her natural process with her husband,

--He introduces the aim of making India as a country where 100% of women would use sanitary pad but at present less than 10% of them use sanitary napkin,

--Girls, women, ladies in the respective village have only heard of Sanitary pad, while some don't even know there are pads to make periods comfortable. And those who've seen it, have only witnessed in adverts in TV or in store, have never used it. 

--In the screen, the ladies are making their own pads, and they're excited about it,

--Rekha's uncle has come to the scene where the ladies are making their own pads but Rekha has told him that the machines are used for making diapers for babies. One of the women says that though the men know the purpose of the machine, they're hesitant to speak about it in public,

--Sneha again talks about her aim of being a police officer. She knows a girl (from her village) who is a police woman in Delhi these days. She says if she'd have been married and sent off no one in the village would know anything about her but, nowadays, the girl's parents are recognized because of her name, That's the change. "No one has a better life than her",

--The women have made pads for themselves and the name of brand is FLY. Now the women are taking the pads door-to-door to sell them. As, there are male shopkeepers so, women may find it difficult to go to shops to ask for pads and the males wouldn't definitely buy pads for females, so the women entrepreneurs believe women may find it easier to get this service, 

--Shabana is saying that the pads may not look good in appearance but they're very useful in comparison to cloth,

--The women working in the pad making business are now self-sustained, they earn money for themselves, be it little. 

--The feminist principal shown in the screen talks about women being the base of the society and urges women to realize their own potential and power,

--"The strongest creature created by God is not lion, not elephant, not tiger, but girl",

Arunanchalan. 

His quote puts a period to my today's blog.

         It was inspiring to see women from a small village, not  very far from the capital city of a country which is rapidly moving towards economic development, to take a step forward to make themselves independent and self-sustained flying towards their aim.