Periods is an age-old taboo in India and no amount of moving ahead with the times has been able to wipe this stereotype off. In yet another disgusting incident, a hostel in Gujarat made more than 65 girls take off their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.?
Despite the taboo, efforts are on to normalise menstruation.
In one such effort, a temple in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore allows women to worship the goddess during menstruation.
The "Ma Linga Bhairavi" temple situated in Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev ashram in Coimbatore, only allows women to enter the inner sanctum of the temple.
"This is the total concept of Sadhguru. It was his intention 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.
Menstruating girls and women are restricted from offering prayers and touching holy books and this temple in Coimbatore is setting an example to follow.
Menstruation is a taboo in many part of the country. The Gujarat hostel incident outraged the country and drew massive criticism. Women are prohibited from participating in normal life while menstruating.
The incident at Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI) a self-financed college having its own girls' hostel, outraged the counrty. The college is run by a trust of the Swaminarayan Temple and is affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University.
A student alleged that over 60 students were taken to the washroom by a woman staffer and made to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.??
The police had arrested four people in connection to the incident.?