The subtle seclusion in Tamil Nadu’s capital city Chennai – The New Indian Express

Express News Service

CHENNAI: A thin, dusty cotton quilt, rolled and folded, is stored in the corner of Vijaya Lakshmi’s storeroom. She calls it the “periods bed.” Every time she menstruates, she unrolls it, lays it out on the bedroom floor, while her husband sleeps on the bed.

Her husband is a conservative Hindu, who believes that he should not eat onion and garlic during his fast. He is also careful to not cross paths with a menstruating woman during his 48-day-fast before going to Sabarimala each year.

“When I have my periods during his viratham (fast), I wake up before him and wait in the verandah. When he goes to the bathroom to bathe, I lock myself in the bedroom until he leaves the house,” she said, stressing that the objective was not to be seen. Lakshmi deeply believes that she would be committing a sin if she did not follow these practices.

Vijaya Lakshmi’s is just one example that the concept of ‘theetu’ (unclean) associated with menstruating women and new mothers doesn’t disappear in urban spaces. Given the dearth of space in cities and towns, seclusion is practised in other ways even among the educated, even in the homes of those considered intellectuals.

Express spoke to several women in Chennai, almost all of whom said that some form of seclusion during their period was practised in their households. The most common restriction is not being allowed into the kitchen or the puja/god room. In fact, even some Muslim and Christian women observe such restrictions.

Others said that, in addition to this, they had to use separate plates, spoons and glasses, and not touch any object that was “sacred” or had an image of god on it. “In my house, every cupboard, mirror and wall had pictures of various gods taped on it. It was so annoying that I couldn’t touch anything,” said 27-year-old Nidhya Ganesh, who works at an international bank. She said that she does not follow these practices as rigidly when her mother is away from home. “I don’t enter the god room, but I don’t care about the rest when my mother is not looking,” she said.

Even though families have started discontinuing such practices (often because the men do not want to go hungry), several women agreed that they faced severe isolation when they reached puberty. 

‘Feeling inferior’

“My mother wouldn’t even pass me a blanket, even though I was sleeping on the cold floor. She would drop it outside the bedroom door and I had to pick it up. Many relatives came home and gave me gifts, but nobody was allowed to touch me. Further, my mother told me, that now that I was a big girl and that I would get pregnant if I was too close with my male friends,” said Sangeetha*, a 25-year-old girl from Chennai, recalling her first experience with menstruation. She still remembers the entire episode as making her feel extremely inferior and dirty.

Medical intervention

Also, it is strictly forbidden for many women to participate in any religious rituals while they are menstruating. Aruna*, a 26-year-old girl who recently got married, said that her periods were due around the day of her marriage. As there is common belief that periods are a manifestation of “body heat”, her family fed her sesame balls, crab soup and papaya to “increase the heat” and advance her period. “However, it didn’t work. Instead I had an acne outbreak before my wedding. Then, some four days before the wedding, they took me to a gynecologist and got me birth control pills to delay the period. When I finally stopped taking it, I had heavy bleeding and was nauseated for an entire day,” she said. She said she would have had no problem getting married while menstruating if it had not been for the pressure she faced from her family and her husband’s. 

The miracle of ‘unclean’ childbirth

The “pollution” associated with menstruation includes even new-born babies. Newborn babies and their mothers are both considered “theetu” (unclean). As a new mother may continue to bleed for a few days after childbirth, many families treat her as they would if she were on her period. Since she breastfeeds the baby, through contact, the baby is also considered polluted. Therefore family members, who touch the newborn, are not allowed to enter temples or touch anything considered sacred.

Hindus usually conduct the Punyajanam (naming ceremony) on the 11th day, because they wait for the bleeding to stop. “I had developed some complications a week after my delivery and I suddenly started bleeding again. Even though the bleeding was very low, my husband’s family did

not allow us to name the baby until the 17th day, as the function involves praying,” said Vanaja*, a software engineer, who delivered her baby in December 2019.

Often, arguments offered in favour of such practices among the educated suggest “rest” or “hygiene” as reason for them. Academics disagreed.

Belief of pollution with health consequences

“People do not see menstruation as unhygienic. They see it as a form of pollution. When a menstruating woman touches a person, in their belief, she is not only polluting their outside, but also their insides, their souls,” professor Sumathi Rajesh, head of the Department of Anthropology at Madras University said. She elaborated that intertwining abstract concepts like “purity and pollution of the body and soul,” with hygiene is the reason people fail to respond to the scientific understanding of menstruation.

The superstitions around menstruation are aplenty and they vary across geography, caste and class, said Kalpana Karunakaran, assistant professor of Humanities at IIT Madras. She said that her female students often ask her if menstrual seclusion was practiced to provide comfort to women. “The answer is no. These practices come out of fear of a menstruating woman in fact.” She said historically, menstruating women were feared and people believed that menstrual blood was evil and had the power to destroy a fetus. It could be that this belief came about as menstruation was a sign of not being pregnant. However, it doesn’t stop there. 

“Many do not allow menstruating women near crops as they believe it could destroy a harvest, they’re not allowed in kitchen lest food gets spoiled, milk curdles and, worst of all, people think if a menstruating woman touches a pregnant woman, it may kill the foetus,” said Karunakaran.

Such practices could have consequences for women’s health. “For example, many village women believe that birds like crows and sparrows should not see their menstrual cloth and, therefore, dry it in inconspicuous places. However, urban poor have similar beliefs and dry the cloth inside their homes in the shade, leading to bacterial and fungal growth. This ultimately causes infections,” Rajesh said.

‘Harmless’ beliefs may not be so harmless after all.