Once, when I was in class 9, I stained my school uniform. The three boys who sat behind me, in the back row, clearly noticed it as we all stood up for the teacher. I heard some whispers and giggles in class but did not pay attention. As we broke for the next class, I suddenly found my red school bag missing. As the teacher walked in, I spotted it lying next to her desk. I asked the boys behind me how my bag landed up there—something told me they'd know. From the attempts at hiding the smirks on their faces, it was obvious they did. I now demanded that they fetch the bag for me. While two of them agreed, the third gent—Little Mister Smirk—insisted that I do it myself. Sensing something amiss, I looked around and found a stain on my white skirt. Almost in tears thinking of ways to hide it, I found a friend from the first row picking up the bag for me.
Changing Times
Since then, things have changed a lot. Last year when the pandemic hit, bringing everything to a standstill, young leaders from Breakthrough's programme sprang into action. One of them was Aditya, from Bazar Tola village of Gorakhpur. Pre-Covid, Aditya had attended a session on menstruation myths and trained, along with other young adults, to make reusable cloth sanitary napkins from discarded clothes. Aditya noticed that women in his family were running short of sanitary pads during the lockdown, as supplies were affected. He figured that other women would also be affected thus. Aditya started talking about his training with women and girls of his neighbourhood and invited them to learn how to make sanitary pads. The women were initially shocked, but Aditya was not embarrassed at their reaction at all. Instead, he shared what he had learnt: Menstruation is a natural process that requires hygiene and cleanliness.