My name is Charlotte Cotton, originally from France, I lived and worked for a long time in Hong Kong and in 2019, I ended up on a special train named Jagriti Yatra. A train that took 400+ entrepreneurs on an 8000 km Journey through India. On this special trip, I met Laad Lohar, who is a menstrual hygiene activist, she is known as the “Pad Woman of Rajasthan”, a reference to the Bollywood movie “Pad Man”. Laad had a quite normal beginning of her life in her culture. She was forced to marry at the age of 14 but divorced in her early 20s, which marked the beginning of her non-conformity to community standards. Wanting to eradicate the stigmas attached to menstruation, she developed a system for teaching about menstrual hygiene education, as it is one of the biggest taboos remaining in India.
I decided to join her in her mission and so we started Mewar Collective Group with the goal of providing health and dignity to everyone who menstruates in India. Here is the story of one of our beneficiaries… (*The Names have been changed to protect identities)
Laxmi had quite a standard beginning of life in a peaceful rural community of Northern Rajasthan.
Her father was an expressive and funny milkman, and her quiet and soft mother was taking care of the large family. Laxmi was a curious and adventurous girl, loving going to school and asking a lot of questions. She had a humble but joyful childhood.
Laxmi was forced to marry a man twice her age she didn’t know. With that, she had to stop her education very rapidly after getting her first child boy at age 17.
As she was growing up, she noticed talking about menstruation was simply not a thing around her.
People were calling various names to describe cycles, such as “This time of the month”, “Code red” or “The girl flu”.
Noticing the discomfort about the subject, Laxmi always thought menstruations were dirty, impure, and shameful. She noticed her own mother wasn’t so free during her periods: she couldn’t sleep in the same bed as her husband and wasn’t allowed to cut certain food.
When Laxmi first got her period, she thought she got infected by the dirty flu and felt hopeless and sad. Not knowing how to manage the situation by herself, she grabbed some old red fabrics that she found in the family house to absorb the blood. It was uncomfortable but asking questions to her mother would have been even worse.
Little by little, other friends were starting to get their cycles and started talking about it. Her favorite nanny, *Harini, wasn’t like the other women of the village and was answering Laxmi’s questions, with sincerity and humor. Laxmi felt comfortable with Harini but couldn’t express all her fears about the subject.
One day, Laad Lohar, a menstrual activist, came to her village to distribute washable and biodegradable pads and to answer questions. It was the first time Laxmi saw a young lady being so fierce and confident talking about periods. That inspired Laxmi to ask questions and share her doubts.
After receiving the Mewar Collective washable pads, things changed for Laxmi.
Handling her menstruation wasn’t so uncomfortable anymore, and most importantly, she was able to understand how her body was functioning. She then realized that having a period is not dirty or something to be shamed about.
The community changed too. Ladies weren’t so scared about the topic, and she was even hearing people using the right vocabulary to describe the cycles. Even boys had questions, which felt a little weird at the beginning but quite normal after a while.
Laxmi knows there are still taboos concerning menstruation. She still feels that she cannot enter temples in peace during her cycles and she doesn’t feel like doing sport either because it’s painful or she is scared people would notice something. She learned how to be more kind to herself when she has her period. She finally allows herself to rest and uses hot water bags to relieve the pain.
Laxmi recently got a beautiful daughter and is really hoping she will be able to freely discuss her body and period management. She also wishes her daughter will be able to continue school and get a proper education, to get financial freedom in order not to rely on a man.
The story of Laxmi is just one of many and with our initiative Mehar Collective we wish to support and empower many more women like her.
We are offering hygiene counseling so that girls can live free from this taboo, attend school, learn a profession and become financially independent.
