Should Women be abandoned to their Religious Institution during their Menstruation Phase?

 

Aakriti Dewangan

Aashiyana House, Near Narnaryana Temple, Bimleshwari Colony, Borsi, Durg (C.G.)

 

ABSTRACT:

India, the land of most of the Hindus, is a very sacred country. But various malpractices continue in the name of customs. One of these is the abstention of women from their religious institution during their menstrual phase. We all know, Women are the one who gives birth to a child. And it is only because they get menstruation every month which releases egg to get contact with a sperm and produce a baby. So, if Women are providers than there is no logic that God will disallow women to go to their religious institution during their menstruation phase. This practice follows in such a country where article 14 of fundamental rights says of Right to Equality. The main goal of this research is to find out the mentality of citizens (both male and female) of Durg-Bhilai and Rajnandgaon regarding this topic. Shockingly, everyone knows that it is a wrong practice done to women, but no one has gut to challenge it, due to the fear of God and Society. Whereas the male citizens have the attitude of …what we have to do with this? This research has used sample survey and questionnaire tool.  The result of this research is very positive means the citizens are very open minded, but literally they should have the courage to don’t follow this taboo and let develop our country by broadening our mind towards these silly small issues, which has no logic to follow.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Different cultures view menstruation in different ways. The basis of many conduct norms and communications about menstruation in western industrial societies is the belief that menstruation should remain hidden. By contrast, in many hunter-gatherer societies, particularly in Africa, menstrual observances are viewed in a positive light, without any connotation of uncleanness.

 

In India, it is only in churches where men and women enjoy equal rights of worship. Temples and Mosques practice discrimination routinely.

 

A Hindu temple in Maharashtra suspended seven security guards after a female devotee stepped on a platform to worship an idol. Women are barred from the platform and temple priests performed a "purification" ceremony to rid it of the "pollution" the women had caused.

 

Many Hindu temples prohibit women who have their period from entering. The Sabarimala temple in Kerela goes a step further – since it was impossible to know whether a woman is menstruating, it had banned all women aged between 10 and 50. Prayar Gopalakrishnan, president of the board that manages the temple, had said that women will be allowed to enter only after a machine has been invented and installed to detect if they have their period.

But,

 

"Patriarchy in religion cannot be permitted to trump over...the freedom to practice and profess one's religion."

 

With these words and many other significant proclamations, the Supreme Court opened the doors of Kerela's Sabarimala temple to all women, irrespective of age, in September 2018 in a 4:1 majority judgment.

In this conservative society where internet pornography is popular and sex columns in the newspapers discuss masturbation and premature ejaculation, talk of menstruation is taboo. So many Hindu and Muslim women have internalised the notion that it is unclean that they voluntarily stay away from temples and mosques when they have their periods.

Well, our ancestors in the Vedic age simply would have thought,

The poor girl must be feeling pain and could get exhausted easily. Let her take rest for these days by staying in, and she doesn't even have to cook. Let her rest.

So, the women of those times rested well and did not even go to temples which they would have done on a daily basis those days, which as time passed by, was interpreted into,

A girl on periods should be kept in home. She should not go out. Not even to the kitchen. She is messy. She is dirty. That's why our ancestors did not allow women inside temples on "those" days.

What happened in between? These people didn't ask for an explanation to why this is happening; thy blindly followed. So, such meaningless customs exists even these days.

But why..?  We all know, Women are the one who gives birth to a child. And it is only because they get menstruation every month which releases egg to get contact with a sperm and produce a baby. So, if Women are providers than there is no logic that God will disallow women to go to their religious institution during their menstruation phase.

And also our constitution speaks about equality as the first fundamental right from article 14 to article 18. So, in this matter where is the equality gone.

Our country will prosper only when we will overcome of all these taboos and concentrate on our country's development goals.

This research wanted to investigate the mentality of citizens of Durg Bhilai and Rajnandgaon of Chhattisgarh state regarding this topic.

 

Material and Methods

This research uses Questionnaire tool and Sample Survey as a method of research. It includes 55% female, 43.3% male while remaining prefer not to say regarding gender identification. Among respondents, 56.7% are from Durg – Bhilai and the remaining are from Rajnandgaon of age criteria 18 to 40 which includes 53.3% working respondents.

As this research uses survey method, it founds the issues of loyalty as everyone wants to be a gentle man in front of everyone.

 

RESULTS

Majority of the respondents are hindus, which includes respondents with 53.4% working (30% male and 23.4% female).

Those who believe that women should not be abstain from their religious institution during their menstruation phase constitute 71.7% (31.7% male and 40% female)

Means,

 

Table 1. The mentality of citizens of Durg Bhilai and Rajnandgaon regarding abstentions of women from their religious institution during their menstruation phase

Locality
Durg Bhilai
Male				Female
Working		Non Working		Working			Non Working
Should Women be abandoned from their religious institution during their menstrual phase?
Yes	No	May be	No	Yes	No	May be	Yes	No	May be
3	9	1	2	1	6	1	2	8	1

Continue

Locality
Rajnandgaon
Male				Female
Working		Non Working		Working			Non Working
Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	May be	Yes	No	May be
1	5	1	2	1	5	1	3	6	1

Total = 60

 

Through research it was found out that most of the females think that women should not be prohibited to go to their religious institution during their menstrual phase. Among them, shockingly mostly non-working class females agree to it as compared to working females. Their opinion is that menstruation should not be linked with their respective religion. God has given this only opportunity to get conceived to females, and this is only because they menstruate every month. If they will not, then generation will never proceed. Then, why women are given such treatment of inequality.

 

While most of the non-working females have fear of God and Society. Due to this, they don’t want to take risk of getting abused, as India used to be a patriarchal society. So, according to them, women should not take risk of going to their religious institutions during menstrual phase, otherwise God will punish them as it is a sin.

 

Very few percentages of females are in dilemma that whether they should agree to it or not. Here, a fight comes between their faith to the customs and the logic (science).

 

 

Figure 1 should women be abstained from their religious institution during their menstrual phase, according to females?

 

Now if we talk about the present generation males, they are also open minded regarding this. Most of the males say that women should not be abstained from their religious institution during their menstrual phase. The reason is the science behind it, that it has not any link with the religion. Now, the males of present society don’t want to dominate females in any way.

 

While very few males have thinking in contrast to others. They believe that women should be prohibited from their religious institutions during their menstrual phase. The reason is their customs and all. And they believe that women should not think regarding it, she

should live according to the society and the so called patriarchal society.

 

Figure 2 should women be abstain from their religious institution during their menstrual phase, according to males?

 

CONCLUSION:

From the study, it was found out that overall the citizens of Durg-Bhilai and Rajnandgaon of Chhattisgarh state are open minded. They no longer believe in the unnecessary customs of prohibiting women from their religious institutions during their menstruation phase. But this mentality is only to say, not to follow. No one has gut to stand opposed to it. Everyone has fear of society...What people will say? ­­log kya kahenge and the males has attitude … it is not our business…hame isse kya karna... This mentality has to be changed. People should speak about it openly, without any hesitation. When we will get rid out of this silly short mentality, then only we can think of big issues of our country and the country leads to success, building underdeveloped into developed nation.

 

REFERENCE:

1.       https://scroll.in/article/896400/why-just-sabarimala-it-is-time-to-discard-menstrual-taboos-in-all-religious-spaces

2.       https://www.quora.com/Why-in-India-are-ladies-said-to-be-impure-during-their-menstrual-period

3.       https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/22/india-menstruation-periods-gaokor-women-isolated

4.       https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/13/menstruation-temples-mosques-india-ban-women

 

 

Received on 05.01.2019       Modified on 16.01.2019

Accepted on 07.03.2019      ©AandV Publications All right reserved