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Getty Images
A topic revealing India’s tense relationship with the menstrual cycle has returned to the headlines in the country. Some university students, who live in a hostel in the western Indian state of Gujarat, complained that they were forced with others to take off their clothes to display their underwear to the teachers to prove to them that they were not menstruating.
Where 68 students were called from their classes, they were taken to the school toilet room, and one after another they were asked to reveal their pants for examination.
This incident took place in Bog city, on Tuesday, against young university students at the Shri Sahagandand Girls Institute, which is run by Swaminarayan sect, a Hindu religious group known as wealthy and conservative.
On Monday, a hostel official allegedly complained to the university’s president, saying that some students violated the rules menstruating women were supposed to follow.
According to these rules, women are prohibited from entering temples, kitchens and are not permitted to touch other students during their menstrual period.
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BBC Gujarati
Girls stand outside the institute where the accident occurred
At mealtimes, they must sit away from others and clean their dishes alone, but in the classroom, they are expected to sit in the last seat.
One of the students told the BBC that the youth hostel maintains a record of their names, and the students are expected to write their names on the dates of the menstrual cycle, which helps the authorities to track them.
But during the past two months, no student has registered her name in the register – and this may not be surprising given the constraints they have to endure if they do so.
So, on Monday, the young hostel official complained to the principal of students who were menstruating and entered the kitchen, as they approached the temple, and mingled with other residents.
The students claimed that the next day they were abused by the hostel official and headmaster before being forced to undress.
They described what happened to them as a “very painful experience” that left them “suffering from shock”, amounting to “mental torture.”
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AFP
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Cry from Hall Shock
The father of one of the students said that when he arrived at the college, his daughter came to him with a number of the students and started crying, adding, “Be in shock.”
A group of female students organized a protest on campus on Thursday, demanding action be taken against college officials who caused their “insult”.
“The accident is unfortunate,” said college secretary Praveen Pindoria, adding that an investigation will be taken and that action will be taken against anyone found guilty of wrongdoing.
But Darshana Dholakia, the vice-chancellor of the university of which the college is a part, blamed the students, saying they violated the rules and added that some of them apologized.
Meanwhile, students told the BBC that they are now under pressure from school authorities to downplay the incident and to refrain from talking about their plight.
The Gujarat Women’s Committee ordered an investigation into this “shameful practice,” and the committee encouraged students to “speak fearlessly of the injustice that occurred to them,” and the police registered a complaint about what had happened.
discrimination On a large scale
This is not the first time that students have been insulted because of the menstrual cycle.
In a similar case three years ago, 70 students were stripped naked in a boarding school in northern India by the observer, after blood was seen at the bathroom door.
Discrimination against women due to menstruation is widespread in India, where the menstrual cycle for a long period of time is considered taboo, and the menstruating woman is considered impure
Menstruating women are often excluded from social and religious occasions, and are prohibited from entering temples, shrines and kitchens.
However, several educated women in urban areas have emerged who challenge these reactionary ideas. In the past few years, many efforts have been made to see the menstrual cycle as it is: a biological and natural function.
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