CHENNAI: The country is archaic and where it is not, it is regressing quickly, so nothing on the news shocks me anymore,” a friend remarked on the Bhuj college incident. A few days ago, in a college in the Gujarat’s Kutch district run by a trust of the Swaminarayan temple, nearly sixty girl students were asked to remove their undergarments to prove that they were not menstruating because it was suspected that some students on their periods were in the temple and kitchen and, therefore, breaking the rules. Unlike my friend, I find myself angry and sad when I hear this kind of news, in spite of having an infinite flow of a similar kind (I mean the news).
In this case, there is no point in asking “Even now?” or even, “Why do these rules exist in the first place?” because period shaming is real, menstruation is taboo, bleeding is stigmatised and menstruating people are considered impure. Yes, even in the times when an Indian film on menstruation has an Academy Award. Yes, when some companies are offering first-day-of-period leave. Actually, this incident from the past week should be enough proof that we have a long way to go, if the Sabarimala verdict review has not already made it evident; or all that blue liquid in sanitary napkin advertisements. Geeta Ilangovan’s film Maadavidaai is going to stay relevant for years to come, and that is the sad state of affairs.
Yet, there’s space for hope here too, if we were to look at the other side of the coin. There are women who pushed the boundaries in this college in question with its religiously coloured codes. The college suspected that the students were in areas they shouldn’t be in while menstruating because the girls had stopped signing the register meant to record their menstrual cycles. While many of us willingly share this information on menstruation cycle tracking apps today, this record-keeping is an age-old way of keeping track of a woman’s sexual activity and thereby protecting the family’s honour. By not partaking in this surveillance of their bodies, the students performed their first act of subversion.
The second was the silence they maintained, and thereby the solidarity that was built for it is easy in a hostel setting to know who is menstruating when and among a small group of people to mentally know who starts approximately when. This could be seen as a recognition of their sexual and reproductive rights, a discovery of the bond that is built on keeping a secret, and silently working on a revolution. The revolution, it may seem, came sooner than expected, and as humiliation. But here comes the third big act of subversion, of refusing to be silenced, of finding the courage to speak up, and informing the local media of the incident even while the downsides of doing so may outweigh the final outcome.
The girls stood up for themselves and that’s where the hope lies, even in an archaic country where nothing is improving fast enough. Hopefully, we see a lot more of this, more blood, more women in Sabarimala if that’s where they want to be, more women working on their period (as if many have a choice), having sex during the period (get over it!), and cooking (again, not a choice for most). Hopefully, we are ready to build a world where all women can choose if they want to do bleeding, everything a man can do without, or take off while on their period to rest and relax. Hopefully all men learn to cook because it’s an essential skill to have and not because they believe in rebirth, bullocks, or bull like that.
Hopefully, someday, all the partners of menstruating people on Twitter will respond to the question “Fellas you go home to your girl like this, what’s your reaction?” when it comes attached to a picture of a woman in blood-stained pants fast sleep on the bed with “Let her sleep”, and nothing else.
Archanaa seker seker.archanaa@gmail.com