Breaking the Silence

Capt Dibya Sankar Mishra

While people are engaged in observing ‘Raja’, the unique festival of Odisha that celebrates girlhood and womanhood, Capt. Dibya Shanker Mishra reminds us about the state of poor hygiene among rural women due to their inaccessibility to proper sanitary napkins – an issue needs a larger attention!    

Quintessentially Odia; ‘Raja’ is a festival that celebrates ‘womanhood’. On the face of it, it is about girls dressed in new clothes, chewing the special raja paan, good food, swings and fun. But raja as we all know, has a deeper socio-cultural significance. Odisha is probably one of the few states in India that celebrates womanhood with such splendor in public space.

In the religious space, a strong Shakti tradition eulogizing feminine energy also corroborates this claim about ‘respect to women’.

When the whole of India isolates menstruating women as ‘taboo’ and impure; the fact that Raja in Odisha (deriving its name from Rajaswala meaning menstruating women), celebrates womanhood and fertility certainly comes as a breath of fresh air. Social practices recommend that girls do not do household chores and take rest during the three festive days.

Symbolically, raja also personifies ‘menstruating mother earth’, indicating earth’s preparedness to bear crop. No agricultural activities are undertaken during these days as a mark of respect to mother earth. Celebrated during mid-June, the festival coincides with season of rains in Odisha – a pre-requisite to begin agricultural activities. The festival ends on the fourth day with “Vasumati Gadhua’ – normally with a heavy shower of rains signifying the ceremonial bath of mother earth.

This festival, I assume may have evolved through the ages, moving from probably being a tribal festival to a tantric practice; changing with changing times and keeping pace with social traditions. Celebration of raja every year with fervor is an acceptance that Odias still do not abide by the usual stigma, shame and taboo associated with menstruation.

However, the point that I would make through this article is whether we actually make our young girls feel revered and celebrated; do we actually celebrate menstruation? You of course would wonder why as a man and as a politician, I would bring this issue to public discourse. It is an issue that concerns women – strictly women, why then do I need to speak about it. But I believe only conversation and dialogue in public can bring solutions to deep seated traditional problems that we encounter in our everyday life.

Both as men and women we need to understand that attaining puberty or the first menstruation is the passage from girlhood to adulthood and is associated with many psychological and physiological changes in the life of a girl. As boys and men, we will never be able to comprehend the permanent change–over in the girl; how much ever we celebrate raja. I have seen my sisters suffer in silence and embarrassment of talking about it to anybody – in a doctor’s family!

While urban, middle class girls may have partial respite from this severe psychological distress, I often wonder about a girl in a remote village who just encounters menstruation with ruthless suddenness – no prior information or knowledge. I suspect school going girls may have some information through their science books, but think of an uneducated girl in a tribal village. She might never know the joy of growing into a woman forget about celebrating her menses.

Celebrating raja as a community does not mean that ‘we’ in our daily lives talk of menstruation naturally and normally. I often feel it is something that a girl experiences in complete isolation and silence – our girls are socialized into not talking about it, discussing it. We don’t deal with the issue; we treat it as a shameful thing that needs to be hidden – not to talk of restrictive traditional practices and social impositions associated with it.  It must be so normal for us not to question why our sisters and mothers are barred from doing puja, denied to enter a place of worship or sleep on the bed on some days.

What is even more disturbing is that we never question as to why the onset of menstruation is perceived as the girl has ‘come of age’ and therefore should discontinue doing regular activities like playing, going to school or making public appearances. These are not stories – they are the practices those continue to exist strongly in almost all communities in rural and urban areas.

It’s time we break this taboo– the taboo of silence. We cannot realize our aspirations of development, social empowerment, women empowerment, life skills for our youth, gender equality by leaving a significant part of our populace laggard; wearing anklets of restriction and limitations.

My young age concerns; the silent suffering of my sisters as we grew up, the poor hygiene practiced by our rural girls using anything from straw to cotton pads to torn saris during menstruation convinced me that there is something that needs to be done. Girls need to be free – experience freedom during these days; they should be encouraged to talk about it, parents, teachers, peers need to speak about it, they should be told that this is a natural biological process that each woman experiences. We must free them from the burden of menstruation and provide them the knowledge on how to handle it. Also they should be taught on the practices to maintain proper personal hygiene and boost their confidence by addressing their un-spoken questions.

I think it’s time to think about our girls not only once in the year during raja but also to release them, make them free from embarrassment, silence and discomfort in their daily life. Hygiene continues to remain a major concern for menstruating women in rural areas. Not every girl in the rural area has access to a simple sanitary napkin; an affordable sanitary pad that can give her respite from her tabooed discomfort and embarrassment.

We have many such success stories in India from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and other states where low cost sanitary napkin units are established and managed by SHG groups. They market such products in the rural areas, to residential schools, to orphanages and destitute homes; promoting positive hygiene practices amongst young girls and women. I also know that there were some units in Odisha which could not survive because of lack of planning and proper follow up measures. I propose yet again to take up an unusual challenge and establish at least two low cost sanitary napkin units in Junagarh and Golamunda blocks of Kalahandi district. It does not take much more than just commitment to set it up and make it functional.

I am also prepared to use my MLA LAD funds to support the cause of freedom of young girls and women. In Tamil Nadu over 500 SHGs have been trained, produce napkins in a hygienic manner, and sell one packet of napkin at approximately twenty rupees. Their government supports in establishing the linkages in marketing the products in rural areas through the local network of SHGs, PDS (Public Distribution Systems) or girl’s hostels. The SHG women also proactively make visits to girl’s schools and colleges in rural areas to promote the sale of their products.

It has been noticed that sanitary napkins available in the market goes beyond the buying capacity of an average rural family. The cost is not only a de-motivating factor but also the major reason why girls/women continue with traditional and unhygienic practices. I assume recurrent reproductive tract infections experienced by women and girls would be related to these unhygienic practices.

In a male dominated society like ours, it is imperative that we initiate to walk the talk to free our girls and women not symbolically but in action; helping them to break their silence.

(The writer is a member of Odisha Legislative Assembly from Junagarh constituency and belong to the ruling Biju Janata Dal – BJD.)