Period. End of a Sentence (Documentary; 2018)
Arunachalam Muruganantham was seen in a TedTalk a few years ago with his low-cost locally made sanitary napkins and how he tried to make a change in the life of the average Indian woman. This is some kind of a showcase of what actually happens at the ground level - getting the ladies to express their issues about this social taboo, making them feel comfortable discussing this physiological phenomenon, to remove the stigma associated with its discussion, discussing the health risks related to their current unsanitary menstrual practices and promoting their homegrown self-generating pad making simple machine with local produce.
At the end of this 20-minute documentary, the women are happy. The promoters are satisfied to have infiltrated into the sanitary business, creating a demand for something not there before. The users feel empowered for being able to control their body, to avoid embarrassment associated with menstruation. For the first time in their life, they had their voices being heard. This could the start of many steps towards woman empowerment. After all, society has long accepted that women maketh society.
Economist Muhamad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner from Bangladesh, understood the role of women in the community when he came up with the idea of setting up his successful village-centric Grameen Bank.
But wait!
Isn't it funny that, at the time when the Supreme Court decision and the palpable public dissatisfaction over the lifting of the ban of the entrance of women of reproductive age to Sabarimala Temple, that a documentary about menstruation and ladies of India receives an Academy award? Is it a smear campaign to put the ruling party (which is pro-Hindu in its stand) and Hinduism in a bad light? Is it an anarchist or the leftist agenda to create mayhem and irreligiosity?
[N.B. Interesting title. Period as full stop which ends a sentence and the ending the sentencing of social restrictions imposed upon menstruating women]
At the end of this 20-minute documentary, the women are happy. The promoters are satisfied to have infiltrated into the sanitary business, creating a demand for something not there before. The users feel empowered for being able to control their body, to avoid embarrassment associated with menstruation. For the first time in their life, they had their voices being heard. This could the start of many steps towards woman empowerment. After all, society has long accepted that women maketh society.
Economist Muhamad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner from Bangladesh, understood the role of women in the community when he came up with the idea of setting up his successful village-centric Grameen Bank.
But wait!
Isn't it funny that, at the time when the Supreme Court decision and the palpable public dissatisfaction over the lifting of the ban of the entrance of women of reproductive age to Sabarimala Temple, that a documentary about menstruation and ladies of India receives an Academy award? Is it a smear campaign to put the ruling party (which is pro-Hindu in its stand) and Hinduism in a bad light? Is it an anarchist or the leftist agenda to create mayhem and irreligiosity?
[N.B. Interesting title. Period as full stop which ends a sentence and the ending the sentencing of social restrictions imposed upon menstruating women]
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