Tragic Suicide Of Teenager After Her First Period Highlights Lack Of Awareness: Here’s Why Period Education Matters

On Tuesday, a tragic incident took place in Mumbai’s Malwani area where a 14-year-old girl reportedly died by suicide. The teenager experienced extreme pain and distress following her first period and she took her own life due to a lack of education and awareness. Upon discovery, her family immediately rushed her to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead.

Impact Of Lack Of Period Education On Teenagers

To know more about it, we spoke to Divya Mohindroo, Founder Embrace Imperfections and Counselling Psychologist seeking insights on how lack of period education can impact teenage girls. She explained how they may rely on social media for awareness which can lead to misinformation regarding normal and abnormal periods and disorders associated with the process.

This can also affect their self-esteem, mental health, and psychosocial behaviour resulting in school absenteeism and reluctance to participate in sports.

Taboos Surrounding The Period Talk

Despite being a natural biological process, menstruation is still considered a taboo in India. Even mothers often hush their daughters when they mention it in front of male family members and most fathers would rather act ignorant rather than educate their daughters about menstruation.

Celebrities like Akshay Kumar have made movies like ‘Padman’ to spread awareness about sanitary pads and period hygiene. Similarly, sanitary pad advertisements are openly representing period blood now instead of that blue stain. In a Swiggy Instamart ad, a girl gets her period but is out of pads; her father takes charge and orders a pack of sanitary pads without any judgement.

Despite all these efforts towards spreading awareness, women in rural areas in India still use hay, ash, cow dung, etc., as a substitution for sanitary products. This can lead to many lethal reproductive health issues. Further, they are forced to stay in barns and treated as untouchables and impure throughout their cycle, apart from being not allowed to enter kitchens and temples.

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How Can We Change The Scenario?

Menstruation is a natural biological process that most women go through starting from their teenage years to adulthood. Despite this being the biggest reason of our existence, we do not talk about it much, making it a taboo to discuss.

No change can be brought to the society until both girls and boys are well-educated about menstruation and its natural occurrence, before they hit puberty. Starting an open discussion about periods from a young age has the potential to change and reshape the beliefs of an entire generation.

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