DU students march against menstruation taboo

Holding placards and raising slogans, Delhi University students on Friday came out on the streets protesting against the taboo and stereotypes associated with sexism and menstruation.

The campaign, "Come and see the blood on my skirt", intended to "create, demand and claim spaces where we can have those difficult conversations and learn about our ashudh (impure) bodies and our sexual selves and where we can dismantle the taboos that shame us and regulate our lives," said organisers.

Shambhavi Vikram, one of the organisers, told IANS that the march was an attempt to take forward the campaign, Pads Against Sexism, where sanitary napkins with messages inscribed on them appeared on the streets.

"We did pads against sexism twice, and through this campaign we are trying to talk about the myths and also highlight the fact that sanitary pads are not affordable and that 88 percent women do not have access to such products," she said, adding that it was also an attempt to fight "period shaming".

The march started from the Vishwa Vidyalaya Metro station around 11.15 a.m. and concluded at the Delhi School of Economics around 4 p.m. Students who walked to various colleges were denied entry at some.

Pads Against Sexism was started by German woman Elona Kastratia who wrote messages against rape and sexism on sanitary napkins and stuck them at public places in Karlsruhe in Germany on International Women's Day (March 8).