A taboo-free way to talk about periods | Aditi Gupta | TEDxGatewayWomen

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

It's true: talking about menstruation makes many people uncomfortable. And that taboo has consequences: in India, three out of every 10 girls don't even know what menstruation is at the time of their first period, and restrictive customs related to periods inflict psychological damage on young girls. Growing up with this taboo herself, Aditi Gupta knew she wanted to help girls, parents and teachers talk about periods comfortably and without shame. She shares how she did it.

Periods.

Blood.

Menstruation.

Gross.

Secret.

Hidden.

Why?

A natural biological process

that every girl and woman
goes through every month

for about half of her life.

A phenomenon that is so significant

that the survival and propagation
of our species depends on it.

Yet we consider it a taboo.

We feel awkward
and shameful talking about it.

When I got my first periods,

I was told to keep it
a secret from others --

even from my father and brother.

Later when this chapter
appeared in our textbooks,

our biology teacher skipped the subject.

(Laughter)

You know what I learned from it?

I learned that it is really
shameful to talk about it.

I learned to be ashamed of my body.

I learned to stay unaware of periods

in order to stay decent.

Research in various parts of India

shows that three out of every 10 girls
are not aware of menstruation

at the time of their first periods.

And in some parts of Rajasthan

this number is as high as nine
out of 10 girls being unaware of it.

You'd be surprised to know

that most of the girls
that I have spoken to,

who did not know about periods
at the time of their first menstruation

thought that they have got blood cancer

and they're going to die soon.

Menstrual hygiene
is a very important risk factor

for reproductive tract infections.

But in India, only 12 percent
of girls and women

have access to hygienic ways
of managing their periods.

If you do the math,

88 percent of girls and women use
unhygienic ways to manage their periods.

I was one of them.

I grew up in a small town
called Garhwa, in Jharkhand,

where even buying a sanitary napkin
is considered shameful.

So when I started getting my periods,

I began with using rags.

After every use
I would wash and reuse them.

But to store them,

I would hide and keep it
in a dark, damp place

so that nobody finds out
that I'm menstruating.

Due to repeated washing
the rags would become coarse,

and I would often get rashes
and infections using them.

I wore these already for five years
until I moved out of that town.

Another issue that periods
brought in my life

was those of the social restrictions

that are imposed upon our girls
and women when they're on their periods.

I think you all must be aware of it,

but I'll still list it
for the few who don't.

I was not allowed to touch or eat pickles.

I was not allowed to sit on the sofa
or some other family member's bed.

I had to wash my bed sheet
after every period,

even if it was not stained.

I was considered impure

and forbidden from worshipping or touching
any object of religious importance.

You'll find signposts outside temples

denying the entry
of menstruating girls and women.

Ironically,

most of the time it is the older woman

who imposes such restrictions
on younger girls in a family.

After all, they have grown up
accepting such restrictions as norms.

And in the absence of any intervention,

it is the myth and misconception

that propagate
from generation to generation.

During my years of work in this field,

I have even come across stories

where girls have to eat
and wash their dishes separately.

They're not allowed
to take baths during periods,

and in some households they are even
secluded from other family members.

About 85 percent of girls
and women in India

would follow one or more restrictive
customs on their periods every month.

Can you imagine what this does

to the self-esteem
and self-confidence of a young girl?

The psychological trauma
that this inflicts,

affecting her personality,

her academic performance

and every single aspect of growing up
during her early formative years?

I religiously followed all these
restrictive customs for 13 years,

until a discussion with my partner, Tuhin,

changed my perception
about menstruation forever.

In 2009, Tuhin and I were pursuing
our postgraduation in design.

We fell in love with each other

and I was at ease
discussing periods with him.

Tuhin knew little about periods.

(Laughter)

He was astonished to know
that girls get painful cramps

and we bleed every month.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

He was completely shocked to know

about the restrictions that are imposed
upon menstruating girls and women

by their own families and their society.

In order to help me with my cramps,

he would go on the Internet
and learn more about menstruation.

When he shared his findings with me,

I realized how little I knew
about menstruation myself.

And many of my beliefs
actually turned out to be myths.

That's when we wondered:

if we, being so well educated,

were so ill-informed about menstruation,

there would be millions of girls out there
who would be ill-informed, too.

To study --

to understand the problem better,

I undertook a year-long research to study
the lack of awareness about menstruation

and the root cause behind it.

While it is generally believed

that menstrual unawareness
and misconception is a rural phenomenon,

during my research,

I found that it is as much
an urban phenomenon as well.

And it exists with the educated
urban class, also.

While talking to many
parents and teachers,

I found that many of them actually
wanted to educate girls about periods

before they have started
getting their menstrual cycle.

And --

but they lacked
the proper means themselves.

And since it is a taboo,

they feel inhibition
and shameful in talking about it.

Girls nowadays get their periods
in classes six and seven,

but our educational curriculum

teaches girls about periods
only in standard eight and nine.

And since it is a taboo,

teachers still
skip the subject altogether.

So school does not
teach girls about periods,

parents don't talk about it.

Where do the girls go?

Two decades ago and now --

nothing has changed.

I shared these finding with Tuhin
and we wondered:

What if we could create something

that would help girls understand
about menstruation on their own --

something that would help
parents and teachers

talk about periods
comfortably to young girls?

During my research,

I was collecting a lot of stories.

These were stories of experiences
of girls during their periods.

These stories would make girls
curious and interested

in talking about menstruation
in their close circle.

That's what we wanted.

We wanted something
that would make the girls curious

and drive them to learn about it.

We wanted to use these stories
to teach girls about periods.

So we decided to create a comic book,

where the cartoon characters
would enact these stories

and educate girls about menstruation
in a fun and engaging way.

To represent girls
in their different phases of puberty,

we have three characters.

Pinki, who has not gotten her period yet,

Jiya who gets her period
during the narrative of the book

and Mira who has already
been getting her period.

There is a fourth character, Priya Didi.

Through her, girls come to know
about the various aspects of growing up

and menstrual hygiene management.

While making the book, we took great care

that none of the illustrations
were objectionable in any way

and that it is culturally sensitive.

During our prototype testing,
we found that the girls loved the book.

They were keen on reading it

and knowing more and more
about periods on their own.

Parents and teachers were
comfortable in talking about periods

to young girls using the book,

and sometimes even boys
were interested in reading it.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

The comic book helped
in creating an environment

where menstruation ceased to be a taboo.

Many of the volunteers took this prototype
themselves to educate girls

and take menstrual awareness workshops
in five different states in India.

And one of the volunteers
took this prototype to educate young monks

and took it to this monastery in Ladakh.

We made the final version of the book,
called "Menstrupedia Comic"

and launched in September last year.

And so far,

more than 4,000 girls have been
educated by using the book in India and --

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

And 10 different countries.

We are constantly translating the book
into different languages

and collaborating with local organizations

to make this book available
in different countries.

15 schools in different parts of India

have made this book
a part of their school curriculum

to teach girls about menstruation.

(Applause)

I am amazed to see how volunteers,

individuals, parents,
teachers, school principals,

have come together

and taken this menstrual awareness
drive to their own communities,

have made sure that the girls
learn about periods at the right age

and helped in breaking this taboo.

I dream of a future
where menstruation is not a curse,

not a disease,

but a welcoming change in a girl's life.

And I would --

(Applause)

And I would like to end this

with a small request
to all the parents here.

Dear parents,

if you would be ashamed of periods,

your daughters would be, too.

So please be period positive.

(Laughter)

Thank you.

(Applause)