Sir,

I would like to congratulate both Manasa Rao and Dr. Sagarika Nithyanand for their brilliant idea of helping the women in these tough times with Menstrual Hygiene Kits. I would also like to congratulate ‘SOM’ for publishing a full page article (The ‘Saviours’ of Womenfolk: Two young Mysureans distribute 14,000 Menstrual Hygiene Kits in ‘SOM’ dated May 24, 2020) on menstruation, which is still thought as taboo in the 20th century. 

This article is an eye-opener for many people like me, who don’t know the trouble women go through apart from all their other selfless acts. It’s saddening to know that women turn towards dried cow dung and coconut husks during their periods. 

I would like to urge the Government or the Departments concerned to issue free sanitary pads to the poor at least. Also, the Government in continuation to the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ can install special dustbins in public places as suggested by the NGO ‘Reachout India.’ 

Also, we see that the medical shops wrap the sanitary pads in paper or black cover as if using sanitary pads is a crime. It’s high time we stop this practice and embrace menstruation as normal process of a woman’s life.

We live in a society where people break coconuts on roads in the pretext of black magic and the poor women use the coconut husks during periods! What an irony! Hope the taboo around menstruation can end some day !

– Arun, Mysuru, 24.5.2020

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