Every time a woman in Pottal Pacheri gets her monthly period, she makes her way to a dilapidated room in the middle of the village where barely two people can stand comfortably.
Even if she does not get it after 30 days, she usually ends up going to the room. “People will otherwise begin speculating over what caused the delayed period,” said R. Thangaselvi, 40, a resident of the village.
The women of Pottal Pacheri simply call the structure a room; some call it a “guest house”. The room’s badly damaged roof scares the women; they said they were in the room during the day but slept outside their houses at night. “When it rains, water fills the area. The roof can fall at any time because it has been 22 years since the structure was built but no one has really maintained it,” said S. Palaniammal, 42.
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Inside the room, a soiled pillow and two old mats hang from hooks on the wall. Dried animal waste can also be seen inside.
Menstruating women, considered “untouchable” during their monthly period, are isolated in the rooms. The women are convinced that calamities will befall the village if they break the practice. “We may never be able to bear children again. How can we risk that?” asked S. Mahalakshmi*, a resident of Koovalapuram.
Similar rooms are found in Pudupatti, Pottal Pacheri and Koovalapuram in Madurai district, and in Saptur Alagapuri and Govindallapuram in Virudhunagar district. The villages are located with 5 km of one another. Going by the villagers’ accounts, the rooms have existed for at least five generations. Young women from the villages said they did not dare question the emotions and practices of the villagers, and hence followed the practice.
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Windows closed
While the structure in Pottal Pacheri is quite decrepit, other villages have pucca structures with concrete or thatched roofs.
In Koovalapuram, Govindallapuram and Saptur Alagapuri, the rooms are fairly ventilated. However, the windows are almost always closed. In Koovalapuram and Pudupatti, the rooms are provided with fans and lights.
Outside the guest house in Koovalapuram and inside all other structures hang brightly coloured bags that have a period package. Women usually carry clothes, utensils, soap, sanitary napkins and sometimes talcum powder. Since it is a monthly visit to these guest houses, the cloth bags remain firmly tied and usually occupies the same position each time one person uses it.
None of the rooms has toilets. Menstruating women go to the fields to answer the call of nature at night or at dawn. A number of women have complained of rashes, infections and complications in their pregnancy due to the lack of hygiene.
Most of the rooms do not have proper water supply. Food is provided based on the whims of the families of menstruating women. “When they give us food, they literally throw it from a distance so as to avoid any form of touch. If they even accidentally touch us, they will go and take a bath. We cannot partake in any functions or activities [during the period],” said C. Annathai (30), a resident of Pottal Pacheri. Even women visiting the village who get their period were asked to stay in the room, she said.
“Everytime I get my period, I go back to my mother’s house in Theni. This is a practice that I cannot relate to and it is easier when I am in my home,” said M. Lakshmi* (21), a resident of Pudupatti who moved here two years ago after her marriage.
E. Shanmugavalli, who lives in Pottal Pacheri, said many women send their children to hostels in nearby towns like Sattur, Peraiyur and Krishnankoil to avoid the practice altogether.
Awareness programme
In Govindallapuram, the room used by menstruating women was constructed with funds from a rural local body as a room for the area’s self-help groups (SHGs) for a sum of ₹3 lakh. Since there is no toilet facility, the panchayat members were collecting ₹2,000 from each household, said S. Pechi*, a resident of the village.
In Koovalapuram, a worker of the district administration said the funds allocated for the construction of a room at their local school had been redirected to build a second “guest-house” in the village.
‘No stigma’
Madurai Collector T. G. Vinay said he had informed the District Social Welfare Officer and asked the Revenue Divisional Officer to approach the villagers and convince them that there was no stigma attached to menstruating women.
“More discussions will soon follow. We are investigating,” Mr. Vinay said.
In the past week, media attention on Koovalapuram’s practices for menstruating women through messages on WhatsApp have had both a positive and negative effect. “People in the village are merely following their beliefs. Nobody is forced to go to these rooms. They do it on out of their own will,” said Koovalapuram panchayat president T. Dhanasekaran.
He said the “negative news” about the village has damaged the reputation of the Scheduled Caste community in these villages, the only community to follow the practice.
(*Some names have been changed)