Menstruation has been a culturally closed-door topic in India and eventually the most overlooked one. Any dialogue around menstruation is met with a hush-hush, hesitation and the menstruating girl or a woman is made to feel dirty and shameful. Menstruation is a healthy physical process the body undergoes for the maintenance and upkeep of the female reproductive system. But in our society, it is associated with the old wives’ tales of not touching drinking water, pickle jars or even entering the kitchen. Even today, in many homes, menstruating women are made to sit separately so that they do not come in contact with the other members of the house. Basically, menstruation is considered nothing more than reproductive readiness.
EcoFemme is a for-profit organisation based in the innovation hub of Auroville, Tamil Nadu that is solving this problem with their washable cloth pads. Check out my interaction with the co-founder of EcoFemme, Kathy Walkling.
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