Menstruation has been a very sensitive topic in our country. As far as I remember, my teachers flipped the pages and skipped the chapter where it was discussed in details. Even I wasn’t told about this physical change in my body by my family before it actually happened to me. The day I got my first periods made me scared to death that I had blood cancer and I would die soon. Not only the ignorance about this painful physical change disturbs a girl but also a lot of taboos associated with it follows her rest of the life.
This image is downloaded from official facebook page of Happy to bleed.
It is almost the end of 2015 and in a country where youth consists the major part of the population, worshipping centuries old taboos really doesn’t make sense at all. One of such case of blindly followed tradition is in Sabrimala Temple in Kerala where ladies aged 10 - 50 are not allowed. The priest in this temple has also demanded a scanner to scan the ladies if they are menstruating so that they can be refused to worship the same God who created them.
All thanks to the brave heart, Ms. Nikita Azad, who actually took it as a serious offence to her self-respect and brought it to the public attention worldwide. She launched a campaign #happytobleed against the prevailing patriarchal society we live in. In India, we worship female deities and we do not allow females into the temples when they are bleeding. Men and women are biologically different so why women are considered lesser beings in any aspect. Women go through the painful process of bleeding for most part of their lives which ensures their reproductive health. A biological process with which a new life is brought into this world.
The #happytobleed campaign is not about protesting against not letting women into the temples while they are having their periods. It is against the prevailing patriarchal society where women can be refused their rights on the grounds of them being just women. Girls like Ms. Azad show the modern picture of young Indian women who are not going to take their regressive images lightly and would challenge every finger being raised towards their non-equality quotient with men. It is not going to happen in a day but Rome was not built in a day either !
It is almost the end of 2015 and in a country where youth consists the major part of the population, worshipping centuries old taboos really doesn’t make sense at all. One of such case of blindly followed tradition is in Sabrimala Temple in Kerala where ladies aged 10 - 50 are not allowed. The priest in this temple has also demanded a scanner to scan the ladies if they are menstruating so that they can be refused to worship the same God who created them.
All thanks to the brave heart, Ms. Nikita Azad, who actually took it as a serious offence to her self-respect and brought it to the public attention worldwide. She launched a campaign #happytobleed against the prevailing patriarchal society we live in. In India, we worship female deities and we do not allow females into the temples when they are bleeding. Men and women are biologically different so why women are considered lesser beings in any aspect. Women go through the painful process of bleeding for most part of their lives which ensures their reproductive health. A biological process with which a new life is brought into this world.
The #happytobleed campaign is not about protesting against not letting women into the temples while they are having their periods. It is against the prevailing patriarchal society where women can be refused their rights on the grounds of them being just women. Girls like Ms. Azad show the modern picture of young Indian women who are not going to take their regressive images lightly and would challenge every finger being raised towards their non-equality quotient with men. It is not going to happen in a day but Rome was not built in a day either !
