Still in many countries worldwide, talking about the menstruation makes people uncomfortable. I still remembered that when I was a little girl who got period at the beginning. Also, in India, the girls don’t talk about it either. 

This speech was given by India Women. She said that 3 our of every 10 girls don’t even know what menstruation is at the time of their first period. Because of the cultural sensitive, there fell awkward and shameful talking about it. She said that when she got first periods, she was told to keep it secret - even from her father and brother. At school, the teacher skipped the subject as well. In such kinds of reactions, of course girls think that the period is not good, they learned to be ashamed of their body, learned to stay unaware of periods in order to stay decent. Some girls even thought that they have god blood cancer and they’re going to die soon.

Due to the lack of knowledge, menstrual hygiene becomes problem. In India, only 12% of girls and women have access to hygienic ways of managing their periods. She was one of them. In her home town, buying a sanitary napkin is considered shameful. Thus she began with using rags. After every use she would wash and reuse them. She would hide and keep it in a dark, damp place so that nobody find out that she had period. Due to repeated washing the rags would became coarse, and she often got rashes and infections by using them. She used that for 5 years unit she moved to other town. 

During the period, girls or women are not allowed to touch or eat pickles. She was not allowed to sit on the sofa or some other family member’s bed. She had to wash her bed sheet after every period, even it was not stained.  She was considered impure and forbidden from worshipping or touching any object of religious importance. Moreover, there are some signposted outside temples denying the entry of menstruating girls and women. Ironically, most of the time it is the older women who imposes such restrictions on younger girls in a family. There were girls have to eat and wash their dishes separately. They are not allowed to take baths during periods, and in some households they are even secluded from other family members. 

Until she had a discussion with her partner, she realized how little she knew about periods. After his help, they wondered, if well-educated people were so ill-informed about menstruation, how about other millions of girls. They took a year to study the lack of awareness about menstruation. She found that many of them actually wanted to educated girls about period before they have started getting their menstrual cycle, but they lacked the proper means themselves. They feel inhibition and shamed in talking about it. Teacher, parents, all of them don’t talk about it. 

Then them came up with the comic book, where the cartoon characters would enact these stories and educate girls about menstruation in a fun and engaging way. It was quite successful.  Now there are quite many schools or countries used the books for educating girls about it.