IN INDIA:

I suspect some of you follow Days for Girls on Facebook. Here's an interesting article posted there on changing the taboos in India.

Women in India Are Turning a Taboo Topic Into Mainstream Conversation

Girls and women are challenging the country’s long-held belief that menstruating makes them ‘unclean.’

(Photo: Adam Cohn/Flickr)

JAN 13, 201A

Priti Salian is a Bangalore-based journalist who covers culture, travel and human-interest stories for The Guardian, CNN, The Christian Science Monitor, GOOD, Al Jazeera, The National and many other publications.

Indian women are no longer shying away from a topic that has been considered culturally taboo for far too long: menstruation. In fact, many are speaking openly after a controversial comment from the board president of Sabarimala temple drew widespread criticism and sparked a Facebook campaign using the hashtag #HappyToBleed.

“There will be a day when a machine is invented to scan if it is the ‘right time’ for a woman to enter the temple,” Prayar Gopalakrishnan, who heads the temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala, said in November when answering a journalist’s question about the age-old tradition of restricting women between the ages of 10 and 50 from entrance. “When that machine is invented, we will talk about letting women inside.”

Sabarimala is just one of several holy places around the world that doesn’t allow women of fertile age within its precincts; the belief is that menstruation makes women impure and unclean. This week, the ban has come under scrutiny by India’s supreme court.

In response to Gopalakrishnan’s statement, 20-year-old student Nikita Azad wrote the board president an open letter protesting against “patriarchy and gender discriminatory practices prevalent in our society.” The letter was followed by the Facebook campaign using #HappyTo Bleed, an effort to break down centuries-old menstrual taboos prevalent in Indian society.

And there are many: It’s a curse. It makes you impure. You’re unclean—don’t enter holy places. Don’t touch the pickle—it will decay. It’s shameful—don’t talk about it. These are just a few things an average Indian girl hears countless times about her menstrual cycle growing up. The beliefs are often passed on from mothers to daughters through generations and are still followed by 40 percent of women, according to a study by sanitary napkin manufacturer Whisper and market researcher IPSOS.

For girls and women living in rural areas, conditions are even worse: Many are secluded from their families during their cycle and, according to research agency Euromonitor, 70 percent use rags, husk, or ash to stem menstrual flow because of associated taboos and the lack of access to hygienic resources. Nearly 62 percent of girls are unaware of what menstruation is until they get their first period, and 10 percent believe it’s a disease.

The response to Azad’s campaign has been positive, spurring debates around patriarchal structures and menstrual taboos in the country.

IN KENYA :

By Gina Gina Din and Siddharth Chatterjee

Nairobi, Kenya — The onset of menstruation is a landmark event in the life of a young woman. Yet many complications and challenges accompany such an event. One in 10 adolescent girls miss school and eventually drop out due to menstruation-related issues.

2016 marks the start of the new Sustainable Development Goal's target 6.2 and provides reason for optimism, recognizing as it does the need to provide "adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all" with "special attention to the needs of women and girls".

Figures from Kenya's Ministry of Education show that a girl in primary school loses 18 learning weeks out of 108 weeks in a year during her menses. Within 4 years of high school the same girl losses 156 learning days equivalent to almost 24 weeks of learning.

Overall, studies estimate that 61 per cent of girls miss school annually due to lack of menstruation hygiene facilities in their primary schools, and approximately 3.5 million learning days are lost every month due to menstruation.

The beneficial link between female education and lifetime health has never been in doubt; a better-educated girl takes better control of her life. She has healthier and fewer children. Moreover educated women participate in the labour market and eventually lift households out of poverty, with these benefits transmitting across generations.

Conversely, low education, poor health and nutrition have a magnified impact on the next generation, as malnourished girls become mothers at higher risk of maternal mortality, and of bearing low birth-weight babies.

One of the reasons the benefits to society of educated girls are not accruing is because communities have been slow in removing manacles such as the inaccessibility of sanitary protection, the social taboos related to menstruation, and the culture of silence that surrounds menstruation, especially in schools.

Lack of access to sanitary protection and towels disempowers girls, as they have to stay at home to avoid staining their clothes with blood in public. The cost of sanitary ware and towels is beyond the reach of many young women and girls, with most ending up missing school altogether during their menses.

The government of Kenya is allocating resources towards providing sanitary towels in schools. While the allocation to the Ministry of Education to purchase the towels in 2011 was Sh. 340 million, the current financial year's allocation is Sh. 400 million.

The government must act upon the 2013 resolution by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) urging partner states to waive taxes on sanitary pads so as to increase their availability and affordability for young girls.

Poverty underpins many girls' lack of access to disposable sanitary towels. These cost between 65 and 120 Kenyan Shillings (US$0.79-$1.45) and are unaffordable to families earning the average Kenyan daily income of just above 1dollar per day. A tax break would greatly help.

We must see this as a violation of basic human rights when girls stay away from school because they fear the shame attributed to their menstruation or because they don't have the means to maintain a healthy hygiene. Girls must no longer continue using old rags, towels, paper from their school books or even dirt or leaves to manage their bleeding.

For a phenomenon that societies know will repeat itself unfailingly every month, the prevarication in developing concrete responses is very disappointing.

While adolescence is the time when girls should begin transiting into adults and shift from dependency to interdependency within their society, almost two out of three know nothing about menstruation until they start their menses, usually a traumatic experience.

As we celebrate a new year, the best gift we can give our girls is an action-plan backed resolution in 2016 that this will no longer be their lot. Sanitary pads or menstrual cups must be priced reasonably.

AND IN EUGENE/SPRINGFIELD

We had a successful day Saturday at the table sale at Our Sewing Room. Mostly selling the donations from Susanne, we found new loving homes for lots of beautiful fabric, quilts, blocks, UFOs, patterns and books. Thank you for your support!