Image credit: The Hindu
(Disclaimer: No sentiments were meant to be hurt in this article. This is a shout-out to de-stigmatize social taboos and save lives. “Janhit mein jaari”.)
An Innocent Girl Expelled from Her Classroom
Take a moment to picture this - your daughter is sitting under the sun, holding her exam question paper, trembling, not because of the questions, but out of fear, as she has been exiled from her class and made to sit in the scorching heat, because of her natural biological necessity and her inherited caste.
Did that send a chill down your spine?
Well, if it did, then congratulations, you’ve successfully proved that you are not a robot! Now, you can read the remaining article with a sense of humanity and humility.
The imaginary situation I described above was the fate of an 8th-standard female student in a private school near Coimbatore, who was allegedly barred from entering the classroom and was made to sit outside to take her final exams because she belonged to the Dalit community and was on her periods.
It was reported that the incident happened not once, but multiple times.
What was her fault?
Well, it was just that she was born into the Arunthathiyar community (classified under Scheduled Caste) and her female biological system was working the way it naturally should.
Not just as a psychologist, but as a human, my heart cries out for this girl — not for her stomach aches, but for the invisible body imprint that this shame and guilt will cause and haunt her all her life. Her experience isn’t an exception; it’s a symptom of a deeply rooted stigma instilled by the patriarchal society of India that equates menstruation with shame and impurity.
The Psychological Toll of Menstrual Stigma
Quarantining a girl child during her exam, solely because of her biological process, conveys an extremely toxic message -
“Your body is not pious now and you are a problem, so stay away from the herd.”
According to Developmental Psychology, adolescence has been identified as the most tumultuous phase due to the significant and rapid changes that occur, especially in females. These changes encompass physical, emotional, hormonal, cognitive, and social developments, due to which they painfully navigate through the phase of “storm and stress”.
It is imperative to understand that menstruation is a significant biological and developmental milestone for a girl and it is not their fault.
Understanding the consequences of the defaming and discriminatory actions
Interference of Self-Worth
The verbal and non-verbal cues that we use to communicate and project our deep-rooted stereotypes and stigmas onto a girl child can potentially plant a seed of lifelong shame and guilt. Those illogical comments and misbehavior by calling her out, especially in public settings, drastically interfere with her self-worth and lead to internalizing the thoughts that her body is not “pure”, it is “dirty” and “unworthy”, thus cementing a negative core belief about herself.
Academic Consequences
We are all aware of how much anxiety and stress build up during exams. To top it up, if such derogatory comments and misbehavior are made by the teacher to a girl child by calling her out and making her from the classroom during the annual exams because she was menstruating, then it will lead to fostering a defaming idea that her education is not important when compared to the antiquated principles of our society.
Mental Health Risks
Research shows that the increased rates of anxiety and depression among female Adolescents are directly proportional to the menstrual stigma that they face. The more we keep quiet and speak in hushed tones, whispering and communicating with “eye gestures” around periods, the more it makes a girl feel aloof and builds an invisible pressure on her to solve a “problem” all by herself.
The Roots of Stigma: Culture, Ignorance, and Systems
Societal Taboos
Even today there are many parts of India where menstruation is still seen as impure and unholy. Due to the prevalence of this deeply ingrained taboo, menstruating females are seen and treated as if they are “untouchables” and are barred from activities like cooking to temple entry.
Prevalence of Inadequate Education
Gone are the days when people used to think that “Ignorance is bliss”. In today’s world, “Ignorance breeds mockery”, holds appropriately! Our education institutions very comfortably omit comprehensive menstrual health education. Boys are not taught the what, why, and how of periods because the teachers themselves do not find talking about such subjects to be “comfortable”. This leads to the prevalence of ignorance and the spreading of misinformation and societal taboos even more.
Institutional Negligence
The Constitution of India, the so-called Bible of the nation, has some golden words inscribed in it about our rights as a citizen of our motherland. The fundamental rights of a citizen of India mentioned in our constitution guarantee both the Right to Life and Personal Liberty (Article 21) and the Right to Education (Article 21A), which are the foundations of a dignified existence. It is one thing to write socially appealing words in the law book and another thing to truly implement it at the ground level. The act of the teacher expelling the female student from writing her exam because she was on her period and belonged to a Dalit community was a clear act of violation of that student’s Fundamental Rights and caste-based discrimination.
Way Forward: A Path towards Empathy, Education, and Equity
The age-old saying “Charity begins at home”, holds even in this era. We need to realize that true change begins by realizing and acknowledging that the deeply ingrained societal stigmas associated with menstruation are a humongous psychological crisis, at par and even more than a societal one. We need to educate ourselves first and demystify the myths that protect the societal Taboos around menstruation before we go on to lecture the paternal figures of society.
Following are some of the ways you and I can act and create a change together:
Fostering Change: Getting rid of the age-old policies in schools and colleges
Rewriting policies:
There should be strict zero-tolerance policies in all educational institutions against any menstruation-based discrimination. All the students must have a couple of mandatory classes to attend so that all their pre-existing misconceptions can be cleared. Physical or mental harassment of children has been strictly prohibited under Section 17 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
Upgrading basic facilities:
Every single girl child deserves a safe, secure, and private sanitation facility. It is their Fundamental Right to Life. This should not be seen as a privilege, rather than a standard necessity.
Teach the Teachers:
Reach out to Psychologists, social workers, and Human Rights activists to conduct workshops or webinars to teach all the academic personnel the proper way to speak, behave, and respond empathetically to any girl who is on her period. Empathetic and emotionally intelligent communication and behavior are the keys to demystifying these age-old societal stigmas, not expelling a student from writing an exam just because she was on her period.
Complete Menstrual Education: Turning Bullies into Allies
For Everybody:
Upgrade your schools’ curricula to normalize menstruation. By making this mandatory change of learning about periods, educating and normalizing the occurrence of menstruation, and eliminating those whispers and giggles defaming a girl on her period, you will be able to turn others from bullies to allies.
Parental Involvement:
Educate families and teach them to change their narratives and old habits of speaking in hushed tones and eye gestures, at the dinner table, whenever the topic of period comes up.
Amplify Voices
Speak Up:
Raise your voice against the prehistoric social taboos of menstruation against your students. Foster peer-based positive support groups to create a safe and secure space for girls to share their experiences without the fear of being judged or treated as “impure” or “untouchable”.
Promote hygiene:
Every year, the 28th of May marks Menstrual Hygiene Day as it highlights the importance of maintaining good menstrual hygiene management all across the globe. Incorporate campaigns in your educational institutions like Tamil Nadu’s “Nirangal” project to provide free sanitary products and the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS) by the National Health Mission (Govt. of India) to promote menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls.
Policy advocacy:
The Right to Education Act, of 2009, provides explicit protection to all menstruating students. Work with your administration to reframe your institution’s policies to help enact all the menstruation discrimination laws for educational institutions.
A Psychologist’s Plea: Addressing the Human Behind the Blood
With folded hands, I plead to all the teachers, parents, and policymakers who are reading my article: That girl student in standard 8 is someone’s daughter, sister, or friend. She has every right to study, write exams, participate in all the activities in school, and live her life safely and without any discrimination.
Instead of incorporating the strategies discussed in this article to counter this prehistoric menstrual taboo that has been bolstered by our society, if we expel a girl child from writing her exam, then we won’t just be interrupting her test, we would be interrupting her trust in this world.
As a practicing Psychologist, over the years, I've counseled girls, in urban as well as rural areas. I have noticed that even in the metro cities of India, people still whisper to talk about periods as if menstruating is a crime! I have witnessed the brilliant minds of quite a few female adolescents getting crushed under the weight of societal taboos.
Contrastingly, I have also had the good fortune to experience radical transformation when families, elders, and educational institutions have chosen the path towards understanding, educating, and spreading awareness with compassion regarding the societal discrimination against menstruation and casteism.
Let us all join hands to foster the transition -
- from Silence to Conversation,
- from Exclusion to Inclusive support,
- from Whispers to Open Discussions, and
- from Shame to Science.
In a nutshell, to the Coimbatore school and all the other schools in India, classrooms are places of education and equality and not exclusion and expulsion. Educate yourselves to educate others.
To all my readers: Come, join hands with Infragilis Minds, to stand up to destigmatize the menstrual stigmas wherever you see them. Menstruation is not a defect, and in no way does it determine one's potential, rather it is the biological indication of good health and future potential.
Raise your voice against these societal stigmas to ensure that no girl is ever made to sit outside her class because of her body's healthy biological rhythm. Let us stand tall and strong against the stigmatizing waves so that every girl has the freedom to write her exams and her future fearlessly with her dignity intact.
The change begins by changing your mindset.