"What the girls are completely unaware is the aftermath of unhygienic practices of using rags to manage their periods."WRONG. Pieces of cloth cut from old cotton sarees, used, washed, dried, rewashed. Is the sanest and time tested practice.Thats what I have always used for decades. What the women in my village use. None have any reproductive tract infections ! All have worked in fields thro long days. This is exactly what is now being promoted in post modern circles as expensive cloth pads. The earlier, simpler and zero cost version of it.This new narrative of 'rags are bad' is simply an entry for corporate interests. For the newfound cup. And for the disposable pads. And for expensive cloth pads.Trying to make the poorest woman also a consumer. A purchaser.As well as to feed into the civilizing agenda. That we need to 'save the backward poor'.
"What the girls are completely unaware is the aftermath of unhygienic practices of using rags to manage their periods."
WRONG.
Pieces of cloth cut from old cotton sarees, used, washed, dried, rewashed. Is the sanest and time tested practice.
Thats what I have always used for decades. What the women in my village use. None have any reproductive tract infections ! All have worked in fields thro long days. This is exactly what is now being promoted in post modern circles as expensive cloth pads. The earlier, simpler and zero cost version of it.
This new narrative of 'rags are bad' is simply an entry for corporate interests. For the newfound cup. And for the disposable pads. And for expensive cloth pads.
Trying to make the poorest woman also a consumer. A purchaser.
As well as to feed into the civilizing agenda. That we need to 'save the backward poor'.
dMiramftSgpoernscohng 7,re Sai20u1l5d ·
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Sanitary napkins are entering villages. Our contribution. Our urban mindset that we are selling to them. I talk to the girls sometimes. They listen to me, but they also lsiten to the louder voices around them, including TV ads.
In the cities, these are discarded into dustbins where poor ragpickers rummage. If that does not make women turn away to simple cotton cloth, does not make them use simple cloth for children instead of disposable diapers, what will.
Maybe some women do not realise this. So for record, these soiled products, if used, are finally touched by poor ragpickers in the dustbins, or at the landfills. And old cotton sarees serve very well, and are reusable.
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18Archana Prasad, Shyamala Sanyal and 16 others
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- Japanese women till date wash these month after month and reuse..2
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- · 6y
- Many of us also. In cities also in villages also.2
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- · 6y
- So when I hear of schemes of giving cheap sanitary napkins to school girls, and even statements that that will help in school retention, I simply wish people would not talk utter nonsense. Firstly a woman has to decide the necessity and viability. And then the woman needs to have gone through those choices long enough to make a non theoritical opinion. All this is sadly bypassed in these days of NGOs and in-a-hurry-dogooders. Who finally usually unleash more harm than good.3
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- · 6y
- Aparna do the children who attend the high school 3 km away have a way to store the used cloth-pads and bathrooms to change in? These things are not foundin city schools serving the lower economic class.
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- · 6y
- Well. if there are bathrooms, but no water these days ! Anyway if soiled napkins can be carried home, so can soiled cloth. And both have equal functionality and absorbability.
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- · 6y
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- OK, let city women first switch - they have enough bathrooms at home, and running water !2
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- · 6y
- The cup is a good invention
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- · 6y
- @ecofemme's new package also comes with separate pouch for carrying soiled pads. this is a very sensible thought and should address the problem of no access to washing in school. government of tamilnadu in a rare moment of wisdom couple of years ago, actually came forward to buy napkins locally made by village women (reusable included) at even higher price than the plastic ones for its free distribution scheme in schools, unfortunately, there weren't enough producers available in the market...1
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- · 6y
- Rama Subramanian, ThoughRadhikablames me for being 'extreme', I still hold that old cotton sarees do perfectly. And there is no need for new fangled products. We can create those to wean away urban women gently. But in villages where anyway old cotton sarees is the way, just need to tell them the issues of synthetic alternatives. And old cloth actually is better also because it dries faster opened out and hung.
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- · 6y
- Shyamala Sanyal, why cups - another product to be purchased ? Every home had old cotton sarees and dhotis and the practice.1
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- · 6y
- Aparna KrishnanI couldn't do it if I was young even if it is eco-friendly
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- · 6y
- yes, the urban woman needs manageable alternatives. The majority of ordinary women are very comfortable with cloth. Which is a most comfortable option. So I simply feel that to address them we needn't create 'new products'. Thats all I'm saying.
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- · 6y
- Aparna- calling you extreme or anything else is hardly useful. What I see is need for women to overcome challenges at mental, physical and psychological levels to manage their menstruation sustainably. I understand from friends atEco Femmethat a significant challenge for most women is how their menstruation is viewed by their family and society, and their own sense of shame around this aspect of their life. Without menfolk taking menstruation and washing of bloody cloths in stride, women with very limited water and no privacy in homes where at least 4-6 people live in a room, cannot maintain menstrual cloths. This is understood by them from a systematic study and not from anecdotal evidence. I harzard a guess that menstruation is very much taken in stride and with more openness in tribal and Dalit societies in which you have lived. I also saw in Paaluguttapalle that with all the poverty there is luxury of a small space around the house, a tree or two and some olai-thatti behind which to bathe, wash and hang clothes. However there is a swathe of population living in semi-rural and small-town India where the social, physical and psychological aspects need lot of work. I agree that old sarees can just be folded up. But for instance, I don't have too many sarees old or new, (I hardly wear them). Reality is most lower-economic class folks wear synthetic sarees. And then it might help some women to have the edges neatly stitched, and secure it under the panties with some buttons. The reality is we live in an era where everything from basic food and water is a commodity and people are seeing themselves as consumers rather than being self-reliant. Hence a new-fangled cloth pad purchased outside doesn't hurt anything and if people accept it in preference to the (non!)-disposables, its fine by me.1
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- · 6y
- Yes, a village has space i agree. And different solutions are needed for different spaces. Totally agree.
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- · 6y
- AndRadhika, why I keep saying cloth is because i was very urban at 25, and I had gone to Narmada those days.I discovered that there was no way of disposing these without dirtying up a breathtakingly untouched place. That I could not. That day I switched to cloth, and now its been over 2 decades. There has never been any concern at all - and I have travelled everywhere, Places of less water, and more water, and less spaces and more spaces. But I agree - its a case of modern attitudes, and a wide section that needs to be addressed, and different mental and physical constraints. I have only respect that a group has taken up this huge and very necessary challenge. I am only tabling my experiances here, and what I have seen in the village, and simply saying that in these places what has stayed a very local and home intervention may be allowed to stay so.1
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- · 6y
- Cup is the most ecofriendly option. Buy once and done. Uses much less water to clean. Interestingly enough I discovered the cup in the Narmada Valley! And then wrote an article for Manushi magazine about it and interestingly enough the photo of me that appears in that article was taken in your home,Aparna Krishnan!1
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- · 6y
- Hunting it down for youAparna Krishnan. Meanwhile for your reading pleasure: http://eemaata.com/em/issues/200603/17.html
ఈమాట » ముట్టుEEMAATA.COMఈమాట » ముట్టు1- Like
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- · 5y
- I don't think that the women are managing just fine, btw. Poor menstrual hygiene is responsible for many of the complaints for which they see the doctor. But instead of addressing menstrual hygiene they are given unnecessary medicines and even surgeries.
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- · 5y
- i was also thinking. Village women have the luxury of space. and less inhibitions, and drying is not a problem. I have not seen such issues of menstrual hygiene in all my years in the village. But I have seen city slums. A slum is a cancer, and may need synthetic and chemical solutions. There sgould be no slums - but as they are there, I suppose those who can address best should. I have no clear answers there.1
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- · 5y
- Only since manufacturing cloth pads in the village have I had so many conversations with women (and men!) regarding menstrual hygiene. In the villages where we work in Srikakulam, they are still secretive about where they dry the cloth. Many women do not have saris to spare for this purpose and the ones they have are not cotton.1
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- · 5y
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- Furthermore, so many of them complaining of white discharge and actually being ordered to have hysterectomies. THis is not limited to these villages, it is rampant in Andhra Pradesh.
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- · 5y
- Aravinda’s Blog » Blog Archive » Unindicated HysterectomiesARAVINDA.AIDINDIA.ORGAravinda’s Blog » Blog Archive » Unindicated Hysterectomies1
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- · 5y
- Aravinda, we have been addressing white discharge very effectively in the village thro' a diet correction and basic local herbs. It is not (in my ayurveda perspective) a 'hygiene' issue. My village women do not have hgiene as a problem in my understanding. I will send that white discharge treatment as we addres it later. later. Yes, the madness of hysterectomies has descended on villages. That is clearly a profit driven concern. I will come back to those details later. (Uma is Uma auntie to you !! I wonder how far apart we are in age actually
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- · 5y
- Great to know that women in your village have plenty of water etc and are solving problems with herbs. Can you tell me more about those herbs and diet - what would you recommend?
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- · 5y
- Thanks also for your appreciation of the article, would be grateful for the opinion of other women in your village, if you can share it with them orally or by taking a printout.1
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- · 5y
- hey Aravinda ! we are in the thores of a drought. what do you mean by 'great water' - i cannot imagine you being sarcastic.
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- · 5y
- No, no, I thought you said that they had enough water and no problem with menstrual hygiene. Was happy about that.1
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- · 5y
- no times are very bad. no drinking water even - and the tanker gets water once in two days - 15 pots per family. distress sale of cattle is on its way.
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- · 5y
- still like water is managed for basic washing and cooking, women manage this also. i meant that generally menstrual hygiene (or hygiene per se also) has not been an issue as i have understood it. my core concerns as i have understood have been malnourishment and now severe problem of livlihood.
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- · 5y
- interesting as you have indicated that hysterectomies have been disallowed under Arogyasri. That is a critical step. But all our women go to Piler to a private chap.
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- · 5y
Making a Difference – A study of unindicated hysterectomies in Andhra PradeshANVESHI.ORG.INMaking a Difference – A study of unindicated hysterectomies in Andhra Pradesh1- Like
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- · 5y
- I am glad that two women who were advised this, turned to ayurveda because they could not afford the rest that a surgery meant. And improved so noticably, that now other women are finally looking to this as first step.1
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- · 5y
- this is more generally about 'salava gaddalu' which is primary for white dischare, though it is also very useful for a host of problems including even a form of epilepsy. http://paalaguttapalle.blogspot.in/.../shatavari...
Paalaguttapalle (Dalitwada) - A Village: Shatavari (Asparagus racemosa)PAALAGUTTAPALLE.BLOGSPOT.COMPaalaguttapalle (Dalitwada) - A Village: Shatavari (Asparagus racemosa)- Like
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- · 5y
- ok, this is it basically. 1. Shatavari (common in most rural areas) roots pounded and boiled in 1 glass of milk (+ 1 glass of water) till it reduces to a glass of milk. 2. Pushyanuga churnam (Ashtanga hrudayam) available with Kotakkal, and also IMPCOPS maybe - 1tsp with honey, followed by 1/4 glass of ricewash water.
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- · 5y
- Both to be had on an empty stomach 1 hr before meals twice a day. Diet to be non sour, spicy and minimum salt. (This is what our village, as most Andhra villages, I suppose, used to find hardest. But now they have accepted this quite casually.). They all respond very well to this.
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- · 5y
- This is also the first line of intervention for excess bleeding Aravinda. In many cases this has done. In some cases a slightly stronger medicine has been needed. Most women rush for a hysterectome when bleeding becomes more. Of is these simple procedures can be established it would obviate the need for those.
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- · 5y
- After all the women dread it as it necessitates rest, and the earnings of poor families gets compromised badly. Also they cannot afford the nourishing food that they themselves say is required.
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- · 5y
- Here is the article from Nov 2005,.India Togetherpublished only the text. When it appeared in Manushi this picture was also there. http://indiatogether.org/manushi/issue150/greetflo.htm
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- · 5y
- lovely ! this was a aeon ago. i still remember - the children were tying together jasmine at home and gave you a strand. and you took it saying you were wearing flowers in your hair after many years. And then when i asked why you said that though you had stopped for reasons of not plucking unnecessarily, or something, you realised that the damage we cause is far larger than these small symbolic gestures of teens (you mentioned your pen drive.). I wonder if you remember ! I do - because I was struck then how similar all our paths were. I had also stopped wearing flowers, and in the village dropped some of these superior notions (somewhat.).
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- · 5y
- Do any of the children remember me? How is Turiya doing? How about your neighbours? I remember talking to one of them after all the children went home. Please do let me know if you get a chance to share the article with them, what they thought and if any one wants to try the cup let me know if I can be of help.
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- · 5y
- how will they remember you ?? you left saying you would come again soon - and its 12 years to date since i saw you ! regarding the options, i will actually leave them with their cloth - because to me what is totally locally acquired and used seems most valuable from the perspective of localisation. i would actually not try to suggest the cup aravinda. this is simply my own perception and for my place. but you come, and we will chat of this and everything else with them ... for some years now, my learning from them has become central, rather than my 'teaching them anything'. when something is a crisis, i respond, thats all. now livlihoods, water ...
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