R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, FEB 24
Periods have long been a taboo in the country, menstruating women are believed to be impure and are still excluded from social and religious events. In recent years, these archaic ideas have been increasingly challenged, especially by urban educated and working women. And social activists and women rights’ groups have been working hard to change the mindset of the society. A woman lawmaker had brought a private member Bill in the Parliament seeking leave for working women during the periods.
While a hostel in the model state of Gujarat made more than 65 girls take off their undergarments to check if they were menstruating, in progressive Tamil Nadu, two temples – a Coimbatore-based temple and another at Melmaruvathur near Chennai allow women to perform pooja even during menstruation.
Ma Linga Bhairavi temple situated in Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev ashram in Coimbatore, only allows women and woman priests or Upashika to enter the inner sanctum of the temple and worship “Bairagini Ma” even during menstruation.
“This is the total concept of Sadhguru. He intended that women should perform pooja and rituals in the temple,” one of the Upashika Ma Nirmala said.
Both women and men come to worship at the Ma Linga Bhairavi Temple but only women are allowed to enter the inner sanctum and worship the Goddess. Women monks and devotees are also allowed to enter the temple even during menstruation.
Women can enter the temple even during their menstrual cycle (which is prohibited in Hindu Temples) after taking bathe. Here in Melmaruvathur Adhi Parasakthi Siddhar Peetam, during the transmigration Adigalar (Amma) tells Arulvakku (oracle).
Melmaruvathur Adhi Parasakthi Siddhar Peetam has thousands of followers in Khokhra, Sabarmati areas of Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat and practising this ritual.
In many parts of India, menstruation is still considered to be dirty and impure in the Hindu faith. Women are prohibited from participating in normal life while menstruating. Menstruating girls and women are also restricted from offering prayers and touching holy books. This temple is aimed at giving a positive message to the society regarding prevalent taboos.
Menstruation, working women and law
In Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and a few other countries, women are allowed a day off work during their periods. Many private companies also offer similar relief.
“In India too, the Bihar state government has been allowing women employees to take two extra days off every month since as far back as 1992 and it seems to be working very well,” says Urvashi Prasad, a public policy specialist at the Indian government think tank, Niti Aayog.
And last year, a female MP tabled a Menstrual Benefits Bill in the parliament, seeking two days off every month for every working woman in the country.
Ms Prasad says there are challenges to implementing any policy in a vast country like India, especially in the informal sector where it needs much more monitoring. But, she says, if a start is made in the formal sector, it can signal a change in mindsets and help remove the stigma that surrounds menstruation in India.
“So what we need is for the powerful organised private sector and the government to take a stand, we need people at the top to send the right signals,” she says. “We have to start somewhere and eventually we can expect to see some change in the unorganised sector too.”
