Women in India: a full-fledged revolution

Today we want to talk about another magnificent documentary that Netflix has recently released. A full-fledged revolution He tells us about customs, the stereotypes, stigmas and taboos that still surround the lives of women in India today.

And this time he does it around a taboo in India that many movements are already fighting against. female menstruation. Something that is already experienced in a normalized way in the West turns out to be one of the main barriers for women in India, in ways that are inconceivable to us.

Something so basic to feminine nature that has been hidden, denigrated and demonized for centuries.. The good news is that, in India, a group of women have found a way to be and advance in the world based on something as intrinsically feminine as menstruation. Let’s see it.

A silent fight

The documentary is filmed in a rural area of ​​Hapur, India, near Delhi. Without a doubt, the women’s revolution in India is already a fact. But rural areas until now remain anchored in a past and in traditions that make them slaves of their past.while they continue to condemn women to domestic life, arranged child marriages, abandoning their studies and the role of mothers without more opportunities.

Very recently, women from a small community in Hapur have begun a silent revolution against the most deeply rooted stigma in their culture.. Menstruation in Indian culture is taboo for men and women on which women themselves have decided to lay the foundations of their awakening.

Sanitary pads are an item that has recently entered the market in India. Although they are only found in stores in big cities, Sanitary pads are practically inaccessible to most women due to their high price.. Now, the Pad project has converted an old semi-abandoned house in Hapur into a factory where a large group of women of all ages make their own pads, which they also sell in stores.

In this way they have created a way to solve a problem that in many cases was an obstacle to achieving their goals. These women have built a cooperative where women obtain economic compensation for their workfor many of them for the first time in their lives.

Menstruation and dropping out of studies

The first and probably most serious problem with the stigma of menstruation for women in India is that it still exists habit of leaving school and studying with the appearance of the first menstruation.

This is actually an ancient tradition that marks the point at which women begin their fertile period. Therefore, they must abandon everything else to devote themselves to marriage and children. Having your period in India is still considered a form of shame and disgrace that prevents you from entering prayer temples. for being considered in an impure state. This occurs even in temples that are consecrated to female divinities. That’s how absurd the stigma still is.

Although many women in India are beginning to find a way to escape premature marriages in their education, many are forced to leave school by their own decision due to menstruation. They do not have adequate places to change and all of them use rags or cloths that are buried once used.: something they cannot do at school comfortably or safely.

The Pad project and women in India

It was initially in the city of Los Angeles that the Pad project was first contemplated. This non-profit organization raised the necessary funds for the first pad manufacturing machine 99% biodegradable that the Hapur cooperative women launched.

The economic empowerment that these women have achieved by providing economic income to their families and their own lives It has led to two notable side effects: earning the respect of the men in the community and paying for the studies of the youngest women.

Her brand of pads is named Fly. A name they chose symbolically because they want the ultimate purpose of their project and their teamwork to be the allow women in India to finally spread their own wings to fly.

overcoming ignorance

The stigma of menstruation in India has a lot of ignorance. The documentary shows us young boys from Hapur who do not know what menstruation is. Some think that it is a disease that attacks women more than men.

For many of the men in the area, this project has also meant being able to get rid of their own ignorance of feminine nature and the rapprochement of the two worlds: the feminine and the masculine. The women of the project Pad They hope to completely eliminate the stigma surrounding female menstruation.

It catches our attention how a project so simple, so accessible, is being able to give birth to a peaceful and tremendously hopeful revolution against ignorance and stereotypes sustained for centuries.

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