Thursday, December 25, 2025

Menstruation in India: Addressing Health, Hygiene and Stigmas

By
Swati Saxena
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padman-6India has started talking about menstruation. Padman, a film about low cost and accessible sanitary napkins for all, had various celebrities posing with sanitary napkins on social media, normalising the discourse around it and urging to shed the stigma and myths around the same. It is not going to be an easy task. This was seen in the recent incident of cyber bullying of a young law student from Kerala after she posted a poem attacking taboos around menstruation.

Stigmas around menstruation go beyond denying entry to women in temples. They pervade their daily lives. Women on their periods are often not allowed to enter kitchens, worship rooms or even step outside their homes. They are not allowed to touch certain foods and many of their routine activities are simply hampered or barred.

The situation is much worse in rural India, where apart from stigmas women face the additional discomfort associated with lack of sanitary products. Low cost sanitary napkins are supposed to be procured from Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHAs, but more often than not, they are unavailable. Even if they are available, these
are of poor quality, necessitating either expensive purchases from the market of better quality napkins or forcing women to use old rags and cloth. The latter is often unsanitary and causes infections and pain.

This compounds the already restricted mobility of rural girls. If the girl gets her period in school there is seldom any facility for sanitary products or equipped toilets. In fact, inconvenience around periods becomes one of the major causes of school absenteeism among young girls and their eventual drop out. An FSG report states that the
percentage of out-of-school boys and girls in the age group of 6–10 years was 5.51 per cent and 6.87 per cent respectively; however, for the adolescent age group of 11–13 years, the percentage of out-of-school children was much higher among girls (10.03 per cent) than boys (6.46 per cent). Thus, stigma and lack of sanitary products to ease the menstruating girl not just impacts her health and well being but also her education in the long run.

In recognition of menstrual health and hygiene as a major health issue for adolescent girls and women, the state has been mandating programmes and guidelines. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been training
anganwadis for generating demand of sanitary napkins and aims to make these available in schools and shelter homes. National Adolescent Health Strategy or Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK)) has included menstrual health and education as part of package of health services to all adolescents.

Menstrual Hygiene Management: National Guidelines (2015) have been prepared by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. This document has attempted to develop a framework for access to knowledge and information regarding menstrual products. It also aims to generate societal, familial and community awareness and informed and trained support for girls. For this it intends to train at the state level (departments of health, education and Panchayati Raj), district and block level (health workers, teachers) and schools. The guidelines aspire to help secure dignity of girls and help them stay in school.

Yet in reality the situation remains dismal. According to UNICEF, around 90 per cent of women are unaware of the importance of using sanitary napkins, 87 per cent continue to use old pieces of cloth as absorbents, with the result
being that 79 per cent suffer from low confidence, 60 per cent miss school and 44 per cent feel humiliated. According to FSG report, there are over 355 million menstruating women and girls in India. However, 71 per cent reported having no knowledge of menstruation before their first period and while mothers remain the first source of information and support, almost 70 per cent of mothers considered menstruation dirty. Almost 88 per cent of women used home-made alternatives such as old cloth, rags or sand and ash. Either quality commercial products are unaffordable or not consistently accessible for women and girls in low-income communities. Moreover, there
are 63 million adolescent girls living in homes without toilets and thus lack appropriate facilities and community support to manage their menstruation privately and in a safe manner.

Prioritising menstrual health and hygiene for women will necessitate a shift in the way women’s health is perceived in policy discourse. Often, most women’s health programmes are centred on their reproductive years – reproduction, childbirth and subsequent mother and child health care. This is also important since indicators of maternal health are unfortunately poor. However, this can end up discounting the health needs of the vast majority of adolescent girls and postmenopausal women.

The issue of menstruation becomes even more complicated since it is not just a health issue, but an issue shrouded in secrecy and stigma. When notions of purity and pollution get associated with menstruation, it leads to further marginalisation of an underserved subject. It leads to myths and taboos and prevents young girls and women from realising their full potential. Normalising ‘period talk’ has started and will no doubt be impactful in the long run, yet at the moment it seems limited to urban spaces and social media. To reach vast majority of rural India, extensive dialogue and campaign to address stigma and give health and hygiene information will need to be undertaken. Communities and local influencers should be involved for IEC activities.

The good news is that apart from government, civil society and NGOs have also started becoming active in contributing to this important subject. For instance, Goonj, an NGO, produces napkins from simple, reusable pieces of cloth under ‘Not Just a Piece of Cloth Programme’. Water Aid India, besides ensuring access to products, provides information about the same and involves multiple stakeholders in the dialogue. WASH United India addresses
hygiene through ‘Menstrual Hygiene Day’ and ‘The Great WASH Yatra’. Menstrupedia is a for-profit enterprise that has aimed to tackle awareness by developing a comic book adapted to local contexts. On the part of the state, most vital will be improving access to free or affordable and good quality sanitary products for all women. This will
ensure equity and better educational opportunities for them. Poverty, want of information, and lack of
access should not impede menstrual health and hygiene.

Dr Swati Saxena is a researcher at a non-profit. She has a PhD in Public Health from University of London and a MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford. The views expressed are her own

letters@tehelka.com

Ram Rajya Rath Yatra: Returning to Ram for 2019

By
Anil Sinha
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When Parliament was debating issues like farmers’ distress and growing unemployment, a RSS-affiliated outfit was busy organizing a 60,000 km-long road trip to revive the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. Unlike its previous version in which the chariot had Ayodhya as its destination, this time the journey was to start from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to reach Rameshwaram in Kanyakumari, the southernmost point in mainland India. The yatra, named Ram Rajya Rath Yatra, was flagged off on February 14 and has already crossed the most important pilgrimage centres of UP including Varanasi and Allahabad. The journey will last 41 days and cover six states including Karnataka, that would face keenly contested polls in April-May. Other states which are to be covered include Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Ram-rajya-rath-yatra-Truecolumn

Most political observers were under the impression that the issue of the Ram Temple had outlived its political utility. Many were inclined to believe that the BJP-RSS combine will not use the issue again as it might not yield any significant dividends. However, proving them wrong, the combine had started raising the issue the moment it came to power. It has been attempting to combine other issues such as gau-raksha or cow protection, love jihad and triple talaq to the core issue of construction of Ram temple at the disputed site of the demolished Babri mosque. The target, obviously, was the minority Muslim community.

The current yatra has also enlarged its canvas, demanding that the Ramayana be included in school syllabus across the country, that Thursday be declared a weekly holiday and also declaration of a World Hindu Day. So, the RSS has this time expanded the temple agenda to include other Hindutva-centric agendas. The destination of Rameshwaram has been chosen to stress the demand of recognition of the Ram Setu.

Though other long-term agendas have been added to it, the core agenda still remains the same. The yatra is being conducted at a time when the Supreme Court is preparing for a final hearing of the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi case from March 14. When all the political parties and religious organizations have said that they would accept the court verdict, what is the need of organizing a yatra on the issue? The court is yet to give a verdict and the organizer — the Vishwa Hindu Parishad — is asserting that a grand Ram temple will be erected at Ayodhya before Ram Navami next year. The rath or chariot has been modelled as per the design of the proposed temple. The yatra also began from Karsevakpuram, the venue where the artefacts of the proposed temple are being created. The place was established during the Ram Mandir agitation of 1990 under the leadership of veteran BJP leader LK Advani.

We can see how pressure is being built upon the judiciary. Spiritual Guru Shri Shri Ravishankar has initiated a dialogue between Hindus and Muslims with some chosen religious leaders. The dialogue is aimed at finding an out-of-court settlement. Noted legal expert and vice-chancellor of National Law University Faizan Mustafa has rightly pointed out that such an effort is unconstitutional and it undermines the constitution. He has also pointed that Ravishankar has been found guilty of violating environment laws by the National Green Tribunal and evading depositing the penalty he has been asked for. The fresh build up around the Ram temple issue is obviously being made keeping in view the 2019 General Election. We have seen how during the Gujarat assembly polls this issue was also invoked. The RSS is determined to go ahead with the agenda of building a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

But unlike its response in the past, the Muslim community is taking it with some indifference. “They have withdrawn themselves. This has happened after demolition of the Babri mosque,” says eminent journalist Kuldip Nayar. He says that the event has left a dark spot on the secular credentials of the country. He blames the Congress government led by PV Narsimha Rao for the demolition, saying that had Rao not turned a blind eye the mosque would not have been demolished.

Will RSS allow the creation of a Ram temple to pass as an event without turmoil? This is unlikely because the whole purpose will be defeated if some violent incident doesn’t take place. RSS-affiliated outfits will try their best to polarize people on religious grounds. In any case, this has to be done at the time of polls to make gains in terms of votes. So, the mobilization has been done well in advance. Whether they are able to polarize the people will only be seen at the time the yatra enters Karnataka and Kerala. Karnataka is ready for polls and the atmosphere is already charged. Kerala has already been witnessing violent clashes between RSS and CPM workers.

Expressing fear of violence, the CPI(M) said in a statement: “Politburo of CPI(M) expresses its deep concern at the grave implications of the ‘Ram Rajya Rath Yatra’ flagged off at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. This rally was flagged off by the RSS-affiliated VHP General Secretary in the presence of Faizabad BJP MP, Ayodhya’s BJP Mayor and other BJP leaders”. The party has rightly expressed its concern over the fact that the route of the yatra proceeds through BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, spending nearly a fortnight in Karnataka where Assembly elections are due, then proceeding via Kerala to reach Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. “This yatra has an incendiary potential to sharpen communal polarization in order to strengthen the communal Hindutva vote bank for the RSS-BJP. There are grave implications of possibilities for stoking communal tensions, violence and mayhem,” the party has said.

The cleverly planned yatra has  avoided to rope in big leaders. No big BJP stalwart has so far attended the yatra. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was supposed to flag off the yatra, but he didn’t turn up. Only a few months back, he had chosen Ayodhya to launch the campaign for the state’s local polls. This distance is possibly being maintained to make it appear as a non-political initiative. Maybe, the organizers are trying to make the ruling BJP governments at the Centre and the states free from the blame of abetting communal tension.

Changing the slogan of Ram temple to Ram Rajya has its own meaning. This seems to be a claver manipulation on the part of RSS and the BJP. The Hindutva forces have long been trying to legitimize their ideology. They have been trying to appropriate the legacy of the freedom struggle and leaders like Sardar Patel are being portrayed as supporters of Hindutva. They are now trying to appropriate Gandhi’s slogan of Ram Rajya. This may be an attempt to get rid of the Hindu Rashtra slogan which is clearly communal. The word ‘Ram Rajya’ was used by Mahatma Gandhi to symbolize an ideal rule. By adopting it, the RSS is trying to bring some respectability to concept of Hindu Rashtra.

Whatever may be the political outcome of this yatra, it is clear that it will further marginalize the minority community. The attempt is not limited to the agenda of building a Ram temple at Ayodhya, it is aimed at establishing Hindu symbols in the country’s public life. This will undermine the constitution.

letters@tehelka.com

Decoding the PNB fraud: Time to fix the rot in the banking system

By
Kiran Suri
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Let us begin from the beginning. To understand how things work, we have to begin from the concept. Some importer, let’s call him Nirav Modi or NM, wants to import pearls or diamonds and then sell these. The purchase requires money, so NM approaches a bank, say Punjab National Bank (PNB). On its part the PNB says look, I’ll give you a loan but it will be at an interest rate of, say, 10 per cent.

nirav modi2NM thinks hard and says, no, that’s too much. Wait, why don’t I take a foreign currency loan instead, after all I’m buying in dollars? Much lower interest rates, no? I can get at LIBOR + 2 per cent and LIBOR (London Inter-bank Offered Rate) is 1.5 per cent so I’ll have the money at 3.5 per cent!

But who will give NM a foreign currency loan? A bank abroad? They don’t know NM. They don’t have any history of NM, so why will they give him money? So NM goes to the PNB and says, boss, you’re my banker, so please help some foreign bank give me some money to buy diamonds. Say that you will guarantee my loan by giving me a Letter of Undertaking (LoU).

The PNB now should be saying look, if you want me to give Rs 100 crore guarantee, you give me stuff worth at least Rs 110 crore as collateral. But the PNB, for some strange reason, doesn’t ask for collateral.  Now the foreign bank is ready to lend NM the money because the PNB will guarantee it and the foreign bank trusts the PNB. Why does it trust the PNB? Because PNB sends a message on SWIFT — the banking message service — that PNB guarantees Rs 100 crore of money for 180 days for NM at an interest rate of, say, LIBOR + 2 per cent. It’s like a message — written in stone, effectively — that says the PNB will pay if NM doesn’t pay.

As the foreign bank trusts the PNB, it gives the money to the PNBs account with it, called by the PNB as a “Nostro” — the account that PNB maintains with banks abroad, where the other bank will send money meant for the PNB customers. The PNB’s nostro account gets the money. The PNB then gives NM the money from the Nostro
account, usually paid off to whoever NM is buying his diamonds from. This payment is to someone outside India usually, to fund a purchase of diamonds or other goods.

Note this carefully: The other bank gives money to the PNB’s Nostro account. Not to NM. They don’t care about NM. They only know that the PNB has given a guarantee on the SWIFT channel. Significantly, the other bank is nowadays mostly the foreign branch of Indian banks. The foreign banks always smell something sinister in such deals. Resultantly, the foreign banks couldn’t care less about whether NM was buying diamonds or bitcoin – to them, the PNB would pay back even if NM’s wallet gets stolen.

Now the question is why should the PNB give a guarantee? Obviously for a fee because for each and every transaction, a bank may charge up to 2 per cent to issue the LoU. Now we come to the other part. What happens when it’s time to pay back? NM has to get the pearls and diamonds in India, sell them, receive the money and pay back to the PNB on the due date as per the LoU. On its part, the PNB will pay back the foreign bank saying okay we got the customer’s money so we’re giving it back to you with interest, etc. That is what is supposed to happen. But in reality, it seems that things went a little berserk.

The Reality: A Bit of a Ponzi

NM might not pay back at all. NM might use the money to speculate in the markets, or do something else. What if NM simply doesn’t have the money to pay back? Instead, he asks some PNB official to open another LoU for the amount owed plus interest. So if the first LoU is at USD 10 million, the second one is USD 11 million to cover the interest on the first. The money from the second LoU is used to repay the first. It’s just rolling over of credit. It exactly fits over and over into the standard definition of a ponzi scheme. This can easily balloon into a larger amount, so large that it’s too much. In effect many such arrangements have turned into semi-ponzi schemes, with one LoU being opened to repay another and so on. In such a scenario, this is what probably happened.  Nirav Modi took loans from foreign branches of Indian banks through a LoU issued by the PNB. This was done through a SWIFT-based LoU issued through a rogue employee (or many of them) at the PNB.

The orders never showed up in the core banking solutions (CBS) for monitoring. The LoUs were rolled over all the way and increased over time too. The rogue official retired in 2017, and the replacement refused to roll over the LoU, which came due in January 2018 because he couldn’t find the past transactions in the system. No rollover means a default, since there was no money to pay. So the PNB quickly filed an FIR saying the bank has lost 280 crore on the January 2018 LoUs. Further investigation by the PNB found that the fraud was massive — to the tune of Rs 11,400 crores.

pnb-swift

Naturally, when the fraud unfolded, everyone in the bank panicked. Could Nirav Modi pay it back? If it was intended to be paid back, the rollovers wouldn’t have been required. At some point, things got so out of hand that rollovers were required in order to stay stable. Generally, this would not be a problem. If the PNB had done things right, they would have had collateral worth the amount of guarantee, and they would have sold that collateral and paid the foreign bank.

The real issue

In this case, the PNB didn’t have any collateral. The question is why did the PNB give a guarantee without collateral? If a commoner goes for a loan to a bank, they’ll ask us for income proof and collateral. Only small personal loans and credit card loans come backed without collateral. For something of the order of 11,000 crore you would think they would definitely ask for collateral.

Ironically, it happened even after the experience with Vijay Mallya where loans to Kingfisher were given on nearly no collateral (though in that case a house and some promoter shares had been pledged). Why did the PNB give this guarantee then? It’s typical — more the amount you give as collateral, more the guarantee that banks give. Again, the loan was not a “fund-based limit”. In a fund-based limit like a term loan, the bank pays out money. In non-fund-based limits, the bank will only pay if someone else defaults or an event happens — like a Bank Guarantee or a LC (Letter of Credit) or an LoU. Meaning, the PNB assumed that the foreign bank was giving a loan directly to Nirav Modi and that PNB needed to pay only in case NM defaulted.

So, in the eyes of the PNB it was always a “non-fund-based” loan. But this is how a significant part of  import financing works. They all rollover credit, and they all use LoUs for much higher than they can offer as collateral.
The fraud may be even bigger because for every 100 that a bank has collateral, they will easily provide LoUs for up to six times the amount. This is a real problem — that most public sector banks do not keep much collateral against non-fund-based limits given to importing customers. So even if a bank has collateral, it’s nowhere near enough. And then, such unfunded liabilities are not even reported to the Reserve Bank of India!

Basel Reporting: No Disclosure

The PNB has “unfunded” exposure of 11,000 crore, they say. But they don’t even reveal it in their latest Basel III disclosure: The funded exposure to ‘Gems and Jewellery’ is shown at 1860 crore and unfunded to the same sector at 842 crore. So in effect, the PNB didn’t reveal that it was funding massive quantities of “unfunded, contingent exposure”. The Bank may pretend that it did not know because the transactions weren’t in the core banking system (CBS).

Did employees hide it? Was the PNB responsible or was it a fraud? Can employees be responsible? Could they have hidden the credit and the rolling over of LoUs? How does 11,000 crore credit pass muster without top management realizing it? Think of it — your nostro account with other banks keeps getting big credits that add up to 11,000 crore and you don’t reconcile it in the accounting? The “why is this money even here?” question should have been asked by someone who audits accounts? The SWIFT messages are a specific kind of message. Why wouldn’t the PNB audit the SWIFT trail? Reconcile it with the core banking system. How many more such skeletons will tumble if they do?

Data wasn’t entered into the core banking system. LoUs weren’t authorized. It appears hard to believe, because the amounts are very large. Surely someone on the top would know. The SWIFT system was illegally used. It is hard to believe that a bank like the PNB would not audit its SWIFT messages regularly, not even its auditors or even the RBI.
On the face of it, it looks like the ex-employee is being used as a scapegoat. It’s likely that a lot of people were in on this thing. And that it generated massive, fat fees for the PNB all these years. Imagine 11,000 crore worth LoUs being
renewed each year — that’s upto 200 crore in fees that was all hitting the PNB’s top line. When you hit numbers like 11,000 crore, this is surely something the top management would know.

Scale of fraud?

While the PNB reported it as a 11,000 crore fraud, they filed an FIR with the CBI for only 280 crore. All of it will now have to be borne by the PNB. Whether someone abused their SWIFT usage is not relevant, if the PNB’s SWIFT message said they will pay, they have to pay if there is a default. Think about the fallout. The problem was that some liabilities were not in the system. There could be more such LoUs from the same branch or others. Other banks could have such LoUs too. It’s imperative to start looking — we know that Nirav Modi will not be an isolated case.

Also, the issue was that the limits had no collateral behind them. If all banks were told to verify their non-fund-based limits and demand collateral against them (say at least 25 per cent) then the scale would be absolutely massive. It’s not that this is happening only with Nirav Modi or Mehul Choksi. A very large number of importers of commodities have been doing this, and rotating credit. A change in regulation here can change the game dramatically for every other bank in the system.

Fixing the malady

How can you have transactions on SWIFT outside CBS? The only alternative left is to fix it. Why would you not reconcile the nostro accounts? Suspend the auditors and fire top management. The General Secretary of All India PNB Officers Federation, Krishna Kumar, who is very vocal has often been raising issues plaguing the banking system.

Closing the door behind Modi, who has already left the country, is probably useless. Invoke their personal guarantees, and file cases to attach their personal properties. After that, file in National Company Law Tribunal to make these companies insolvent. Take the hit, and try to recover. Find out more such cases where collateral cover is too low. Find out if the LoUs or LCs are just getting rolled over or is the customer actually paying back through the Indian current account. And if not, demand more collateral to avoid further spread of the fraud. It is horrible that our banks have been this lax and they have been allowed to, with no bankers being investigated. The rot inside the banks has been ignored and instead industrialists have been the targets of outrage. It’s time to fix the rot in the banking system.

The views expressed are the author’s own.
letters@tehelka.com

Historical visit: US aircraft carrier arrives in Vietnam

By
Tehelka Web Desk
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images (2)In what it can be seen as a historical step, a US aircraft, USS Carl Vinson made a port call in Vietnam on March 5. This is the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. It’s a landmark visit since there hasn’t been a carrier there for last 40 years.

The symbolic visit of USS Carl Vinson, which will make a four-day port call to the central city of Danang signals a significant shift in the relationship of former bitter enemies.

The arrival of the Carl Vinson strike group’s 5,500 sailors marks the first time such a large contingent of American military personnel has landed on Vietnamese soil since the last of the US troops withdrew in 1975.

SSC exam paper leak: SC to hear plea seeking probe

By
Tehelka Web Desk
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unnamedOn the SSC paper leak case, the Supreme Court on March 5 said it would hear a plea seeking an investigation into the alleged SSC exam paper leak on March 12.

The Staff Selection Commission (SSC), on March 4, decided to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leaks in the Combined Graduate Level-Test Tier II examination held on held on February 21.

In a statement, SSC chairman Ashim Khurana said that a delegation of candidates, who were protesting against the alleged paper leaks, met him along with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and handed over a memorandum.

“The commission agreed to recommend to the Department of Personnel and Training to request the government to conduct a CBI inquiry into the allegations of leak of questions of Paper-I on February 21and other related issues,” the statement said.

The candidates began protesting on February 27, just days after the Staff Selection Commission said it would conduct a re-test for those who took the Combined Graduate-Level Examination on February 21. Citing “technical reasons”, the SSC made the announcement on February 24 and scheduled the re-examination for March 9.

There has been a protest by SSC aspirants at the SSC office at CGO complex since February 27 demanding a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leak of the examination held between February 17 and 21. The protest sparked soon after SSC announced that it would conduct a re-test for those who took the Combined Graduate-Level Examination on February 21 citing “technical reasons”. On February 24, SSC announced the re-examination date to be March 9.

6 dead in Shopian encounter in Kashmir

By
Tehelka Web Desk
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2018_3$largeimg205_Mar_2018_010154787The toll in South Kashmir’s Shopian encounter has risen to six on March 5 as the authorities recovered two more bodies.
“Two more bodies were recovered in Shopian district this morning,” a police spokesperson said.
The bodies are suspected to be of the second militant and an individual.
According to reports, the Jammu and Kashmir police have also recovered two weapons from the suspected militants.
The suspected militant is reportedly identified as Ashiq Hussain Bhat of Lashkar-e-Taiba whose body was found seven kilometer from Pahnoo where the Mobile Vehicle Check Post incident occurred.
On the night of March 4, security forces had killed a militant and three youths in a shootout after the mobile check post of the army was fired upon. According to the police, the militant was Aamir Ahmed Malik, a resident  Shopian’s Harmeen village.
A joint MVCP (mobile vehicle check post) in Shopian had signaled a car to stop, but it did not, according to a police official.
An Army spokesperson said the youths were overground militant workers, but local residents claimed they were civilians traveling in the car.
While the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti has expressed grief over the incident, the killings have triggered an outrage in the Valley
“Deeply distressed by more deaths of civilians caught in the crossfire in Shopian. My heartfelt condolences to the deceased families,” said Mufti.

Menstrual hygiene: Still shy to talk red in India

By
Pari Saikia
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Heavy-bleeding-700x350Red signifies many connotations in the diverse Indian cultures and religions. Power, purity, love, anger — red has many shades of interpretation. Another significant meaning of red which often shies away from being part of mainstream discussion in India is menstrual hygiene. With the word menstruation are accompanied never-ending myths and taboos like inequality, impurity, superstition that are still deep-rooted in our society. The menstruation myth is not restricted to rural areas only; modern families in urban areas and metro cities are no exception.

Menstruation is a natural phenomenon experienced by women’s bodies, without which reproduction is impossible. Education on menstrual hygiene is highly important for girls to understand the transitional change in their bodies. But why do people get so uncomfortable by this subject about a natural process of life?

What is absurd about taboos around menstruation in India is that in some cultures, onset of menarche is traditionally celebrated with much openness to mark the beginning of puberty. For instance, Assam celebrates the onset of periods in girls with a marriage ceremony called Tuloni Biya; in Karnataka, it is celebrated as Aashirvada; Tamil Nadu calls it Saddangu and so on. In Assam, the menstruating girl is married to a banana tree, assumed to be her groom. The adolescent girl is decked up like a bride and vermillion is put on her; it’s a seven-day affair followed by a marriage reception, music and gifts for the little bride.

However, the same openness is absent when it comes to talking to girls on basic menstrual hygiene methods, correct ways to use sanitary napkins, treating them as normal human beings during menstruation without following taboos and superstitious beliefs. Everybody shies away from these things, including the mothers.

In most parts of the country girls on periods are barred from entering kitchens, temples, washing her hair, taking medicines, not to forget the pickle curse where touching pickle is believed to be ominous; in some cases girls are only allowed to sleep on floors for at least a week, a custom still prevalent in many states of north, south and north-east India. These antiquated customs are a result of sheer ignorance in terms of education and awareness on the concept of menstruation across all sections of society in India.

Time to talk red

Goonj Founder Anshu Gupta, whose Not Just a Piece of Cloth (NJPC) project caters to women of rural areas and urban slums of 20 states through distribution of handcrafted, reusable cotton sanitary napkins and spearheading education on menstrual hygiene in schools, calls for a framework to fetch out a long-term solution on menstruation.
“The topic of menstruation cannot be treated as a fashionable subject which all of a sudden has become one. We need to look for long-term solutions to this. People are setting up sanitary pad vending machines, incinerators, even selling pads at a subsidised rate of 5 per packet against the MRP (maximum retail price) of 30 per packet.

Distribution of sanitary napkins (not even 100% cotton) is momentary. The real question is when will we have a long term solution for menstruation — the need for education and awareness on menstrual hygiene?” Anshu told Tehelka.

Focusing more on the need of educating girls and women on menstrual hygiene, he said, “We need to work more on the awareness part like what is the issue related to menstruation? How do we get into more hygienic practices? We at Goonj stress more on education, interaction and then on our product MY Pad. Goonj also believes in the theory of triple As- Awareness, Accessibility and Affordability, without meeting these three points, the entire cycle is incomplete. Not to miss out on the fact that affordability is still a big issue in a poor country like India.”

Jago Gaon founder Somesh Choudhury is fighting for the menstrual hygiene rights of women in over 100 villages of Begusarai and Samastipur districts of Bihar. Many villages of Bihar do not sell sanitary napkins in shops due to stigma surrounding periods, Somesh told Tehelka.

“We have brought out an awareness book named Mahamari Meri Kahani so that the first level of the task, i.e, educating girls and women on menstrual hygiene, is done. Jago Gaon reaches out to rural schools where girls from fifth standard are taught on pre-menarche and menstrual hygiene practices. We also work with women of village Gram Sabhas and Anganwadi workers of Begusarai and Samastipur districts in Bihar, Bateshwar (Agra district in Uttar Pradesh), Dhandbad in Jharkhand and parts of Delhi, on the menstrual hygiene sensitization drive to train and educate them. It is not necessary that females should wear sanitary napkins only; hygienic cotton cloth can be worn too during periods. ”

Choudhury and Gupta are men on a health mission for women in a society where the natural phenomenon of menstruation is considered as impure and shameful. When asked about facing any resistance from people, Somesh said, “Once, when we were motivating women of Bah Bateshwar village in Agra for pads distribution work in nearby villages, senior male members from their families started to warn them saying Is kaun pagal ke chakkar mein pad gaye ho (Don’t work with this mad person).”

Talking about Punjab, Jeevan Jyot, better known as ‘Pad Woman’, pinpoints an important matter — majority of village women cannot afford undergarments or have access to it them, forget about any menstrual protections for them. She said that 70 per cent of females in rural areas of Punjab are still far from using or having access to sanitary napkins, as per a survey by S.H.E Society of which she is the founder.

“We started a campaign called ’S.H.E. Breaks the Bloody Taboo’ , where we began by imparting education by talking about taboos and myths on menstruation in rural schools of Punjab. We found out that 70 per cent of females in rural Punjab were not using sanitary napkins or had access to pads. I decided to plan a cheaper solution for these ladies. That is when this campaign turned into a project,” she said.

“We are engrossed in reusable pads distribution that can be worn without an undergarment and also, provide two-hour menstrual health programme educating females on hygienic menstrual practices in schools, slums and rural areas. We hold simultaneous sessions with the girls first and then with the mothers,” Jeevan told Tehelka.
Called ECOShe Saafkin pads, a pack of two reusable pads costs Rs 200. Only girls from the very poor families get the pads free of cost. What is special about these pads? Jeevan explained that they are made out of a fabric which is permanent anti-bacterial and disinfected, powered by living guard technology. The wash-and-reuse ECOShe Saafkin pads can last for a year sans discomfort.

Talking about unhygienic menstrual practices in Punjab, Jeevan said, “We have adopted a slum in Jalandhar where we have witnessed how these slum ladies are involved in most unhygienic menstrual practices like using rice husk and sand as menstrual protection.”

To this, Somesh added, “Our fight is not limited to sanitary napkins and awareness. Menstruation is a normal body phenomenon without which the existence of mankind is a question. To understand this, government should make menstrual hygiene a part of school education where both male and female students should be taught to break barrier, taboos and myth. And awareness and education on menstrual hygiene is a continuous process. ”

letters@tehelka.com

Karnataka: A stage to get set for all upcoming polls

By
Dr. Anil Singh
-

1Imminence of polls to the state assembly of Karnataka, scheduled to be held in April or May this year, has been instrumental in envisaging a flurry of hectic political activity in almost all political parties in the state, especially the BJP, Congress and JD(S). The JD(S) has formed an alliance with BSP, NCP and the Left parties, popularly called the Third Front, to contest the forthcoming assembly polls. The Karnataka assembly election is significant for all contesting parties as it will determine the trends in the approaching state assembly polls later this years as well as next years’ general election.

BJP Strategy

The forthcoming assembly polls in Karnataka are significant for the BJP because it had been in power in the state in the recent past, from 2008 to 2012. Some analysts feel that though winning the state may not be very crucial to the BJP’s overall dominance at present, losing it may affect its future in other southern states of India. The BJP is focusing its entire attention on specifically targeting chief minister Siddaramaiah, rather than the Congress, because it is the popularity of this Congress leader that can prevent the juggernaut of BJP’s electoral victory.

One expert has opined that in a state like Karnataka where religious pluralism has often played truant to the homogenising call of Hindutva, the BJP is projecting Siddaramaiah as being ‘anti-Hindu’ and trying to polarise the electorate by playing the card of thick Hindu identity with a view to keep its flock together in a religiously pluralistic state bequeathed with diverse religious forms such as Shaivism and linga worship traditions, Jainism and Buddhism, bhakti and devotional sects and rich folk-cults.

The early entry of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath into the electoral arena is seen as part of the BJP’s strategy of polarising Hindu votes. Apart from levelling charges of corruption against Siddaramaiah and exhorting the people to choose between “Commission Government” (Congress) and “Mission Government” (BJP), the BJP is also sharply focusing on its ‘Vikas’ mantra, promise of change in northern Karnataka, and a vow to remove all constraints in Bengaluru to attain the status of a megapolis.

Undoubtedly, the national leadership of the BJP has claimed that the party would win more than 150 seats in the coming assembly elections in Karnataka; nonetheless, some experts are skeptical about this claim in the wake of internal fissures within the state unit of the BJP unless much of the organisational work is entrusted to the RSS.

Congress’s Prospects

A favourable verdict in the elections to the Karnataka assembly is crucial for the Congress, which has not won any state election, barring Punjab, after 2014. A victory here would help it capitalise on it elsewhere, boosting its campaigns in other states which go to the polls later this year. Congress is now making efforts to forge a distinct social support base across the country which entails overt recognition to religious belonging as a counterweight to the Hindutva agenda, reaching out to the farming community as a whole, and holding forth as the champion of the backward classes, the minorities and the poor. In other words, the Congress is increasingly veering round a package of values such as respect to religious commitment, social justice and equality, and human dignity as its mantras, without necessarily disowning secularism.

Media reports make it discernible that the Congress, under the leadership of Siddaramaiah, has introduced numerous schemes to alleviate distress, waived small farm loans, regularised squatter holdings on government lands, and conferred title deeds on the settlements of itinerant pastoral communities. It has also assiduously cultivated symbolisms, conferring public recognition on heroes and saints, and banning rituals that it has regarded as superstitious and inappropriate to human dignity. Siddaramaiah has also succeeded in keeping the Dalit flock together by balancing the representation of major Dalit castes.

Siddaramaiah’s intervention on four fronts has been politically very savvy. He has kept the volatile Kannada lobby in good humour, utilised the addition of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region to Article 371 of the Constitution to ensure that the demand for a separate state does not resurface, taken the battle straight to the BJP camp by making Basava, founder of the Lingayat sect, the icon of Karnataka, covertly stoking the popular demand of the Lingayats to be recognised as a separate religion, and ensured that the fallout of riparian conflicts does not boomerang on the Congress by cultivating farmers’ leaders.

Third Front

Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) leader and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has entered into electoral alliance with BSP, NCP and the Left parties which it is touted as the Third Front — an anti-BJP, anti-Congress formation to be tested in the political laboratory of Karnataka in the forthcoming assembly polls. In view of the fact that both BSP and NCP have little or no presence in Karnataka, and that the JD(S) vote share in Assembly elections since 2004 has hovered around the 20 per cent mark, many experts feel that this political arrangement is nothing more than an alphabet soup and JD(S) leadership could hope only to damage the two national parties to the extent of forcing a hung Assembly in the state when it goes to the polls.

The JD(S), apart from being short of star campaigners to woo the Dalit space, is also starving for funds. One analyst has observed that undoubtedly, the JD(S)-BSP-NCP alliance wears the mask of being an ideological tie-up and a serious effort to indulge in social engineering; however, in reality, it seems need-based, driven by political arithmetic.

Way Forward

The ensuing state assembly elections in Karnataka are crucial for both the BJP and Congress. For Congress, this is the only big state where it is in power after Punjab. Thus, its victory will be a great morale-booster and open new political avenues for the party in other states and a loss could entail serious long-term political implications. The election is crucial for the BJP too, as Karnataka was the first state in South India where the party stormed to power in 2008 and its victory could act as the party’s gateway to southern part of India.

Since 1985, the state has never re-elected the incumbent party, which means that power changes hands every five years in Karnataka. From 1985 to 1999, power oscillated between Janata Dal constituents and the Congress. The trend was broken in 2004 when the people delivered a hung verdict. The Congress however, managed to retain the Chief Minister’s chair with support of the JD(S) under a formula for sharing the top post.

Caste factor has played a decisive role in state assembly elections in Karnataka in the past and in the ensuing scenario it will also be a decisive factor. Lingayat plus Brahmins, known by the acronyms LIBRA and Alpasankhyataru plus Hindulidavaru Mattu Dalitaru (Dalits, Backward Classes & Muslims) also known by the acronym AHINDA, the commonly used terms in Karnataka politics, are potential groups that often decide the fate of the elections in Karnataka.

Some political pundits are of the view that LIBRA has traditionally been the strong supporter of the BJP, whereas the AHINDA has traditionally supported the Congress. With Siddaramaiah at the helm of the Congress, AHINDAs, which had fully backed the party in 2013 resulting in its resounding victory, are likely to go with the Congress again. The Vokkaligas, comprising about 12 per cent of the total population, have traditionally extended support to JD(S) led by Deve Gowda. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa is a Lingayat, and SM Krishna, former Congressman who is now in BJP, is a Vokkaliga. Current CM Siddaramaiah is a Kuruba and belongs to the OBC community.

The Lingayats are dominant in North Karnataka, Hyderabad-Karnataka (north-east Karnataka) and Old Mumbai region (Bombay-Karnataka). The Vokkaliga is a dominant peasant caste of Old Mysuru. According to some experts, the Congress and the BJP have a base vote share of 24 percent each, while the JD(S) has started with five percent only. They further argue that the Congress has half the support of the AHINDA, while the BJP has 60 percent of the support of the LIBRA, and in order to win both parties need an additional 10-12 per cent votes and it is for this reason that both the parties are focusing their eyes on the balance seven percent Vokkaliga vote to win.

Keeping in view the fact that the period spanning 2004-2008 witnessed an era of instability and the state saw three Chief Ministerial tenures, one from each party, the question is raised as to whether this trend will be repeated in 2018 and if it does, who will be the beneficiary — the BJP or the JD(S) or will there be a hung assembly situation like in 2004. In case of a hung verdict, JD(S) could be in a position to dictate its terms to the party that wins the largest number of seats, provided it manages to win over 50 seats in a house of 240 seats. However, some experts, while agreeing with the surmise of a hung assembly, affirm the emergence of the Congress as the largest party. Amidst these speculations, it is worthwhile to wait and watch.
letters@tehelka.com

Chief Secretary-AAP MLAs’ spat is nothing short of bizarre power game

By
Charanjit Ahuja
-

Anshu_Prakash“Unreal friendship may turn to real, but real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended,” said Nobel Laureate T.S. Eliot. The recent spat between Delhi Chief Secretary and Aam Aadmi Party legislators at the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal points to a similar situation. The tiff has degenerated beyond the limits of acceptable bizarreness. With entire bureaucracy standing in support of the Chief Secretary, it would be interesting to watch how the chief minister is able to mend forces and forge friendship with the babus. Kejriwal who has a distinct style of functioning has to be held responsible for this kind of unbecoming incident because he allowed a meeting between the Chief Secretary and the legislators at midnight. Being the CM, it was incumbent upon him to ensure amicable relations between executive and legislator. If the senior most bureaucrat in the Delhi government feels himself physically intimidated, the onus lies squarely on the Chief Minister. The Chief Secretary, Anshu Prakash, has alleged that he was physically assaulted by two AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal. The Delhi Police promptly arrested the two MLAs. Around 20 officers of Delhi Police searched the chief minister’s residence, while about 40 kept guard outside to seize CCTV footage of the alleged attack.

The AAP has showed equal promptness in blaming BJP at the Centre for fomenting trouble. As per the law, the Centre’s nominee, the Lieutenant-Governor, holds most of the constitutional power and the L-G has reinvented himself as a hostile source of constitutional pinpricks. Only recently, the AAP completed three years of power in Delhi which could be described as survival by fire. The Lt Governor has always stretched the rulebook to its limits by declaring each and every AAP policy initiative as null and void.

The Kejriwal government has historically been marred by conflicts but none could imagine that its MLAs would assault the Chief Secretary in his presence. The Delhi CM has to deal with officers reporting directly to the Lt. Governor, who is not bound by law to act on the advice of his council of ministers. Until Delhi is a full State, the CM, the party and his ministers have to understand that they have to work within the existing constitutional arrangement. Instead of working at a collision course with the bureaucracy, the AAP needs to keep pushing for the constitutional changes that will give Delhi full statehood rather than targeting police officers and civil servants. The leadership at the Centre too needs to show statesmanship so that both the Centre and the Delhi government work together to see that the administration is not brought to a halt.

Assembly poll results: BJP enters Northeast with a bang

By
Tehelka Web Desk
-

BJP victoryWhile the BJP-IPFT combine has scripted history by winning the Tripura Assembly polls with two-third majority, Meghalaya witnessed a fractured mandate with the ruling Congress emerging as the largest party but only marginally ahead of rival National People’s Party, providing the smaller parties with an opportunity to play kingmaker.

In Nagaland, the Congress tally of 21 of the 59 seats – two more than the NPP’s – marks a setback for the party that had bagged 29 seats in 2013 and later won a by-election to dominate the 60-member Assembly with 30 seats.

Ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in Tripura, the BJP and IPFT won 43 seats. The CPI(M) won 16 seats and the Congress none.

The elections in 59 seats in the 60-member Assembly were held on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to the death of a CPI(M) candidate.

The BJP with a tally of 35 seats won the majority on its own, while its alliance partner the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) bagged eight seats, according to the Election Commission (EC) sources.

The saffron party inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Left Front, which had never faced such a situation, even when it had lost power in 1988 to the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity combine, media reports pointed out.

In Meghalaya, the NPP’s 19 seats are a huge jump from the 2 it had won in 2013 and have given it the chance to form a coalition government with other non-Congress parties. The BJP has opened its account with two seats.

The United Democratic Party has seen its tally drop to 6 from the 8 it had won in 2013, and the Hill State People’s Democratic Party’s score has slipped from 4 to 2.

Among Congress stalwarts who have lost are former chief minister Salseng C. Marak, defeated by former deputy chief minister and NPP candidate Timothy D. Shira at Resubelpara.

The Congress, which was in power in Meghalaya since May 2009, failed to win a majority but emerged the single largest party with 21 seats.

Despite emerging as the single largest party winning 27 of the 60 seats, the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) in Nagaland may not be able to muster majority.

bjp_parliamentary_board_meeting_and_celebration_of_bjp_hq_after_the_results_of_tripura_meghalaya_and_nagaland_assembly_1The BJP-Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) combine looks set to form the next government. Their chances brightened after the JD(U) committed support. The support took their tally to 30. They are also likely to be backed by PA Sangma-founded National People’s Party (NPP) besides the lone Independent. The NDPP came a distant second with 17 seats, media reports pointed out.

The BJP won 12 seats. The rest of the seats were bagged by JD (U)-1, NPP-2 and Independent-1.

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