WOMEN YELLED FOR HELP,
MANKIND GIFTED THEM COMFORT.
Women, the developer of the future and in fact the strongest creatures of the Earth are cursed with a natural yet very painful phenomenon known as “MENSTRUAL CYCLE”. Menstrual cycle is basically a periodic change that occurs every month in the female reproductive system which makes pregnancy possible. The menstrual cycle occurs due to the rise and fall of female egg. The cycle results in the thickening of the inner lining of the uterus and the growth of the egg. If pregnancy does not occur, the lining is released in what is known as MENSTRUATION or PERIOD.
Menstruation is a way more painful and unhygienic process that occurs for 4 to 6 days in every non pregnant women. It leads to many disturbing symptoms like lower body pain, frustrated mood, back pain and so on but the worst part of this is that it leads bleeding from the female reproductive part which makes it unhygienic and infectious.
Sanitary Napkins are truly considered as a perfect boon to the women. It is an absorbent item worn during menstruation, abortion etc to absorb the flow of blood in order to minimize the danger of infection and to maintain a better hygienic lifestyle.
Life of all women before the invention of napkins was as miserable as hell. The continuous fear of getting infected and losing their lives had become a part of their survival. The dreadful journey which the women incurred swaying between life and death is really hard to be imagined.
With the culture and the society which made the topic of menstruation “UNBECOMING” and “SHAMEFUL” made it tougher for everyone to gather knowledge and to invent something for the betterment of the society. Societies never allowed anyone to disclose this topic publically. It is even said that parents preferred death of the girl child but not to lose their self respect by asking for help or treatment. Society named this cruel and shameful act as their culture, a meaningless culture which just brought down the death of humanity and destroyed our beautiful angels.
During 19th century, women began to use clothes in order to absorb or clean the blood but due to the lack of knowledge almost 70 percent women faced critical problems like rashes, blood clots, injuries and fatal infections. The 18th and 19th century was very cruel upon the female gender of the society. With prevailing thoughts of women being inferior and burden to the society, nothing much was done and our angels continued becoming the victims of the dreadful culture.
With the dawn of the 19th century, there were many inventions like padded belts and tampons. Tampons are basically type of cup like structures made up of aluminum or hard rubber which was meant to be inserted inside the reproductive part to collect germs and blood. But the women were ashamed of using such thing as it results into virginity loss and according to the society, losing virginity before marriage was like committing a serious crime. Moreover, the menstrual belts were expensive, so everyone was not able to afford it.
During the WORLD WAR 1, the sanitary pads were used first time in order to clean and heal the wounds of the soldiers. This inspired the first cellulose kotex sanitary napkins. In 1921, kotex had become the first successfully mass marketed sanitary napkin. It was the beginning of feminism across the whole world. The beginning of mainstreaming period products meant women could take more control of their autonomy, allowing them to work head-on-head with men and came out of their homes in a fantastic way.
In 1927, Johnson & Johnson hired a great physicist LILLIAN GILBRETH who interviewed thousands of women in order to advertise the sanitary napkin. This was the time when the world started to come out of their cultures and starts differentiating menstruation from sex and reproduction.
From 1950’s, the revolutionary moments headed by women started taking place. Ads of sanitary and other period products were being presented as showing girls participating in sports and other activities to reinforce the idea that girls are no longer inferior to boys.
Creative modifications were made in the 21st century with the introduction of beltless pad which were more effective and way more hygienic. There came many variations like mini pads, maxi pads, pads with wings and so on which were much comfortable and way more suitable for every woman.
After Independence India started to develop with modern thoughts. A market of period products was estabilished. But the never ending economical crisis kept on hurting the people. The sanitary pads were much more expensive due to the heavy duties in them which constantly barred people to afford it. ARUNACHALAM MURUGANANTHAM popularly known as “PADMAN” was probably the first man to realize the importance of sanitary pads. He saw his wife and mother using rags to clean the blood and just got shocked with fear. Being educated, he realized the danger of infections, so he started to build up a machine which can produce pads at a cheaper rate. After facing a lot of problems and failures, he succeeded and with God’s grace and his hard will, the machines are now installed in 23 out of 29 states in India producing best quality napkins at very reasonable price.
Menstruation is indeed a dark and dreadful part of every woman which cannot be prevented but can be controlled with sanitary napkins and other period products. In this modern world, there still exists a large part of society which yet thinks this topic as shameful because of which every year huge number of women suffers and dies.
Women are the strongest creation of God. Being a woman was never being an easy task. But to a great surprise, even the women feel ashamed while disclosing this topic which helps the men to criticize this topic badly. Women should accept that this is a natural cause and not a fault to be ashamed off. Not only women, the men should realize that periods are the cause of their extinction. So let’s be together and united to educate the world about menstruation and encourage the use of sanitary napkins for the betterment of women which will definitely lead to the betterment of the society.
DEDICATED TO ALL THE MOTHERS AND THE SISTERS AROUND THE WORLD
YOU ALL ARE THE REAL ANGELS……..
By PIYUSH GHOSH, GIRIDIH, JHARKHAND
