India: Girls underwear were taken down for menstrual tests

India: Girls underwear were taken down for menstrual tests

India's traumatic relationship with menstruation is once again in the headlines.

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Girls living in a hostel in a college in the western Indian state of Gujarat have complained that female teachers took off their clothes to see if they were getting menstrual periods.

 68 girls were kicked out of their class and taken to the toilet and each of them was taken individually in clothes and underwear so that they could be examined.

 The incident took place in the city of Bhaj on Tuesday.  These young girls are undergraduate students at the Shri Sahajanand Girls Institute.  These organizations are run by Swami Narayan cults who belong to rich and conservative Hinduism.

 The girls say an officer complained to the college principal on Monday that the girls were violating the menstrual cycle.

 According to these rules, women are allowed to enter the temple or kitchen during menstruation and they cannot touch other students.

 They have to sit separately from others at meal time and have to clean their own dishes while in the classroom they are allowed to sit in the last row.

 One of them told BBC Gujarati's Prashant Gupta that there is a register in the hostel in which the girls have to register their name at the onset of menstruation so that the administration can identify them.

 But for the past two months, none of the girls had registered their name in the register, and perhaps they did so in the belief that doing so would face the restrictions that existed there.

 Therefore, on Monday, it was complained that the girls were entering the kitchen during the menstrual period, going near the temple and mixing with the other girls in the hostel.

 The students complained that the hostel's administration and principal had mistreated her before she took off her clothes the next day.

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He said that what he had done to her was a very traumatic experience that she went through 'trauma' and was nothing short of 'mental torture'.

 One student's father said that when he arrived at the hostel, his daughter and several other girls approached him and started crying.  They said she was 'in shock'.

 On Thursday, a group of students staged demonstrations on campus and called for action against those who humiliated the girls.

 The Trustee of the college, Parveen Pandoria, called the incident 'unfortunate' and said that an inquiry was ordered and that anyone found guilty in the case would be prosecuted.

 But Vice Chancellor Darshana Dhulkia of the university affiliated to the college accused the students.  He said the girls violated the rules and also said that many girls had apologized.

 Nonetheless, some students told the BBC they were being pressured by the administration to end the incident and were told not to report their distress.

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On Friday, the Gujarat state women's commission ordered an inquiry into the 'shameful incident' and urged the students to 'file their grievances without fear.'  Police have registered a complaint regarding the incident.

 This is not the first time students have been shamed for menstruation.

 In a similar incident three years ago, 70 schoolgirls were stripped of clothing at a North American school when a warden noticed a blood stain on the bathroom floor.

 In India, menstruation shows widespread prejudice against women, because menstruation is considered as unclean on the day of menstruation and menstruation.  They are generally kept away from social and religious ceremonies and kept away from temples or even kitchens.

 But now educated women are challenging this conservative idea.  Over the past few years, menstruation has been trying to be seen as a natural process, but there has been little success.

 In 2018, the Supreme Court of India issued a landmark decision to open the gates of Sabrimala Temple for women of all ages, saying that keeping women away from the temple in Kerala is discriminatory.

 But after a year of widespread protests, the judges decided to revise the decision.

 Surprisingly, women were also heavily involved in these protests, which shows how deeply the stigma of menstruation is rampant in society.