 "Village women and girls carry water at Fangadi Village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Photo: Reuters.")
Kala was 11 when she had her first menstrual period. She was at home preparing for her final exams and panicked when she found herself bleeding.
“My first reaction was to panic,” recalled Kala (name changed to protect identity), a college student in southern Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district. “I thought I had contracted some serious illness and I was going to die. What would happen to my exams? Should I ask my father to take me to the doctor?” Kala had called out to her mother in panic.
”My mother did not come,” Kala said. Instead, the old
