Rakhi, 22, Preeti, 21, Nishu, 19, Arshi, 18, Ruksana, 18, Sushma, 32, and Sneha, 22, manufacture sanitary napkins at a small set-up in sisters Rakhi and Preeti’s house. A film based on them, Period. End of Sentence. , which deals with the stigma attached to menstruation, has won an Oscar award.
However, the two girls, part of the face of a revolution in Khatikhera village, don’t have a toilet at their house, locally known as ‘Mohan ki Haveli’ after their great-grandfather.
Not enough money
Ms. Rakhi and Ms. Preeti’s father Vijender Tanwar, 55, is very proud of his daughters and greets visitors conveying wishes with a wide smile. He could not build a toilet because money is short. “The floor needs to be dug out and it demands money. The government gives money for building toilets but the Gram Pradhan dodges us,” he said.
Ms. Rakhi said that everyone in her family used the makeshift toilet in the next street, as did many other residents of the village.
Many of the villagers don’t have toilets in their house. When asked how they managed, women directed this reporter to makeshift open toilets in empty plots where they relieved themselves.
The discussion on the lack of toilets, however, took the backseat on Tuesday, as the women and the villagers celebrated the fame the award has brought. “ Kisiko pata bhi nahin hai ki Ocsar (sic) ka kya matlab hai … bas ye pata hai ki ye ek award hai (‘nobody knows what Oscar means… they just know it’s an award’),” said Ms. Preeti.
But this fame and happiness has come at a cost. Recalling the beginning of their journey, the women said they faced objections, were mocked at and made fun of, and had to lie and put up a fight to be able to run the manufacturing unit. “We told our mothers but to our fathers, we initially said that we were going to make diapers for children,” said Ms. Rakhi.
The sisters recalled their grandfather objected strongly: “ Ye kaisa ganda kaam hai? (‘What kind of dirty work is this?’),” but their grandmother took a stand for them and told him about her ordeal with using a cloth during her period. He eventually made peace with their project. The villagers also objected to “being so open about periods.” “Initially, the women would shut doors on us and say that only we had the guts to talk about this, they didn’t — spare us. The men would also make nasty statements behind our back,” said Ms. Preeti.
The women remembered how, when the movie was being shot, they were hesitant to come in front of the camera, and how they were mocked: “We showed how we get rid of the used pads and bury them in the soil in the fields. It was embarrassing. People used to laugh. They would say that the foreigners were just fooling around with us.”
Among them, Ms. Sushma (32) perhaps struggled the most. She is married and belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC). Her husband Satish runs a grocery store in the village. Ms. Sushma recalled how her husband told her to finish all chores and only then could she go to work. She was also told by her family to not sit, eat and drink with Gujjars and Muslims.
If two years ago, she was known as ‘Satish ki biwi ’, now, it’s the other way round. Nevertheless, on Tuesday morning, a neighbour taunted her, “You are all coming on TV but after all, you are earning ₹2,500 a month.”
“But here, the seven of us live like a family. Caste and religion have no role to play. I don’t think I can spend a day without Sushma jiji ,” said Ms. Rakhi as she clutched her hand.
Only one
Of the seven women, only Ms. Sushma dropped out of school because of menstruation because her school neither had a toilet nor a female teacher. “I was using cloth till two years ago,” she said.
The manufacturing unit has given the women wings to ‘Fly’ — the brand . But they still don’t feel “fully liberated”. “Our life is still about work and home. We don’t go to cities and are not allowed to do so alone. Things are changing slowly,” said Ms. Preeti.
