Bastar tribal girl challenges menstrual taboo

An adivasi girl in a village in Chhattisgarh’s tribal-dominated Bastar region has created a ripple in her community by challenging the age-old taboo of socially boycotting women during their menstrual period.

Jandai Nag, 16, a resident of Purantari village in south Bastar district of Dantewada, refused to follow the practice of quietly slipping into nearby forest before sunrise to stay out of men’s sight, and return home after sunset, during her periods.

Women of her community have also been forced to stay in a makeshift hut built outside their houses, during that time. “Jandai has revolted against the taboo on the ground that the girls and women risked attack of wild animals when they spend the day hour in the dense forest during the period. She not only broke the social taboo by insisting to stay home during the period but also encouraged other girls and women in the village to follow her footsteps”, Gayatri Devi of Banabasi Samaj, a non-government organisation working for eradication of social evils in tribal villages in the region, told this newspaper on Sunday.

According to the NGO spokesperson, Jandai incurred the wrath of village elders in initial days of her resistance to the practice for violating the age-old traditions of the community. But, the women folk in the village rallied behind her forcing traditionalists to make a retreat. “This is also a form of subjugation of women”, she was quoted as saying by the NGO spokesperson.

A World Bank-sponsored study by educationist Jawahar Sursetti has found that majority of tribal women living in remote areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand have been forced to use leaves as napkin during their menstrual period due to lack of access to sanitary napkins.