Happy To Bleed

The Red Cycle's Summer Internship Programme 2019 Apply for summer internship in The Red Cycle. The wait is finally over and The Red Cycle is all set to take its first ever batch of interns in our journey to make menstruation a non-issue!

I just read an article saying that Happy to Bleed has maintained an intriguing silence over temple entry in case of Sabarimala. So here's to breaking the silence - women have the right to enter any temple irrespective of whether they menstruate or not. Now that the supreme court has reiterated the point, it's up to the Kerala state machinery to support and provide a safe atmosphere for women who want to enter Sabarimala. No doubt the judgement is a landmark one, but ensuring a safe and conducive environment is equally significant for the judgement to be materialiazed on ground. At the moment, I am studying at Oxford - and I am studying the very fact that made me interested in the issue (Women's Studies) and it will not be physically possible for me to visit the temple but once I am back, I'd very much like to enter it and claim my space and right. Nonetheless, I want to specify again that temple is just part of the problem which is menstrual stigmas that affect women's and girls' ability, confidence, and the very development of their selves. As always,

~ Nikita Azad

"The social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, is a form of untouchability which is an anathema to constitutional values. Notions of “purity and pollution”, which stigmatize individuals, have no place in a constitutional order."

- Justice DY Chandrachud

A woman, apparently a college student, in Kerala was slt shamed in the cyber space and her younger sister was physically assaulted by the Sangh Parivar terrorists for a Facebook post, by the former, about 'MENSTRUATION'.

This happened in a state where the Chief Minister had started the conversation about the importance of Menstrual Hygiene and against the menstrual taboos. Hope police will do their job.

Never legitimise this act by terming these terrorists as mentally unstable. They are completely aware of their acts and are trying to push their agenda.

Campuses which protested against the tax on sanitary napkins, social media which celebrated the PadManChallenge are now back to silent mode. Happy realisation of the consequences when you talk about sensitive issues.

Waiting for that question from the innocent souls out there:

"How's 'menstruation' an issue man?"

"The silence and shame associated with a woman’s monthly cycle and all the taboos that become attached to her during this time have made women’s right to safe, healthy periods an especially difficult topic to address in India. This silence echoes in public policy discourses, tax laws, even science, because of which there’s very little research to understand menstrual and reproductive health problems."

Let’s talk about sanitary pads: A marathon taught Kerala about the need for sustainable menstruation

A one-of-a-kind marathon is changing the way Kerala thinks about sustainable menstruation, so that every woman can enjoy her right to safe, healthy periods.
The Red Cycle

"Most women believe it is cotton in their pads. Over two and a half years of continuous bleeding and exposure to about 4,000 pads, a woman’s body is in close contact with these chemicals, whose role in hormone disruption and the rising rate of cervical cancers, PCOS and endometriosis has not been conclusively ruled out. In fact, evidence suggesting the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals in disposable pads has been systematically ignored by mainstream science.

Dioxins, a group of chemicals used to bleach pads white have been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the 'dirty dozen' – a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent environmental pollutants and carcinogens. We might have to accept the rash, itching and foul odour as par for the course in disposable pads. But, there is no acceptable level of dioxins that one should be comfortable with."

A 14-Day Marathon In Kerala Is Making Sustainable Menstruation Matter Media company Culture Machine’s recent move to grant paid leave to women employees on the first day of their menstrual cycle was, expectedly, not universally well-received. But what the radical move did was draw attention to women’s experience at the workplace and attempt to build a work culture...

"The recent su***de of a school girl after being mocked by her teacher for staining the uniform was a call to our conscience and action to bridge the menstrual inequity that persists in India. The solution goes beyond just distributing free period pads or vending machines and asks for a system change where a purely bodily function is not viewed through disgust and ignorance of a typically patriarchal mindset."

A 14-Day Menstrual Marathon Is Happening In Kerala. Here’s Why It Matters! Shradha Shreejaya

"As Bobel has noted, central to this script (of the evolution of sanitary napkins/ tampons) regarding the particulars of sanitary protection, these have quickly materialized as markers of modernity, class privilege, and respectability. In India, on the one hand, the advertisements encourage the ‘modern Indian working woman,’ but on the other, they maintain the respectability/honor of the women in the advertisements who never directly display the most significant marker of menstruation, red blood. Further, by consistently emphasizing the need to conceal blood stains or ‘preventing leaks’, they allow menstruating women to seem to be non-menstruating, which exacerbates the process of stigmatization and legitimizes the already prevalent invisible character of menstruation in the country."

Menstruation in India: Ideology, politics, and capitalism (2017). Menstruation in India: Ideology, politics, and capitalism. Asian Journal of Women's Studies: Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 528-537. doi: 10.1080/12259276.2017.1386817

"This is not a time to be neutral. Neutrality in these times is a crime, second only to what these fascists are doing. For every voice silenced, a thousand new ones have to rise up. There is only one political position that any sane person living in this country can take - the one opposite to that of the fascists. And while taking that position, we should pay heed to one of the last things that Gauri Lankesh wrote, before she was shot dead - to stop fighting between ourselves. As she said - "We all know our biggest enemy. Can we all please concentrate on that?""