Shanthi Ganga had the shock of her lifetime when she asked girls in one of her menstrual awareness classes about how they disposed of their sanitary napkins.
“I wash it, remove the cotton and flush it, and then burn the rest,” was the reply from many. The reason cited was Sarpadosham ( serpent curse), which is instigated by burning of blood and could allegedly lead to infertility. Apparently, even non-Hindus believed in it.
“I do not want to touch the aspect of belief. But this method of disposal of sanitary napkins is unscientific. What appears like cotton inside them is actually super-absorbent polymer that bloats when put in water and eventually leads to clogging of toilet pipes,” says Dr. Shanthi, an Ayurveda physician in Kozhikode, who provides menstrual awareness/ hygiene and sex education classes to teenagers in government schools.
Ironically, the girls, even while accepting her advice to burn the napkins completely, are in no position to challenge their mothers. A majority believe menstrual blood is impure blood being discarded by the body.
Dr. Shanthi, in her classes, has been trying to promote eco-friendly menstrual hygiene methods such as cloth pads and menstrual cups instead of plastic sanitary napkins. Most teenage girls had heard about menstrual cups but had never seen one until Dr. Shanthi introduced it to them. But none of them wanted to use it for fear of losing their ‘virginity’ (hymen). She holds separate menstrual awareness classes for boys so that they understand that it is not something to be stigmatised and treat the women in their life properly. The sex education classes are also held separately for boys and girls. “These kids are advanced in their knowledge of sex as compared to the generation before them. But they are thoroughly misinformed too,” Dr. Shanthi says, adding she does not want to talk morality to the children.
“I just talk about safety and the right procedures. This is important as most of them are exposed to pornography and are guided by those videos,” she adds.
It was a discussion on how biology teachers in schools skipped the lesson on the reproductive system that led Dr. Shanthi to work on the idea of sex and menstrual education classes. It is four years since she began these classes.
