Radha, a girl of 13 years. She is daughter of a farmer who yields his field whole day. He never went to school so he wanted his children to educate as much as he can. Radha has a younger brother Ratan. They both go to school that is five kilometres from their home. She is one of the brightest students of her class. She is a girl of dynamic power, can read whole day, paints in her copy, not "drawing copy", her father cannot afford that expensive copy. She has a dream to colour the canvas, to make the world go gaga with her paintings. Alas! Her dream didn't last long. She is a girl, she has to face the cruelty of growing up, the process to become a woman. She is now facing all the "hormonal locha", we call it 'puberty', in our decent language. It's a natural process through which we all pass, right? Hormonal imbalance is like passing through volcanic eruption. Oh!, I was telling you a story about Radha, so I should come to the point. Radha is facing her 'menstruation'. She has to skip school for some days regularly so that she could save her family's dignity. She has to sleep on the floor, eat in discarded utensils, couldn't touch pickels (her touch can rot it). It's her punishment that nature has given her. And the society has added thousands of myths that made her hate herself. She always wished and pray to God ,"please take my blood away". Her parents cannot afford sanitary napkins. She asked her mother one day-"can you buy me pads?" Her mother genuinely replied, "khana to muskil se kha pate hain, tere liye kapda kahan se laaun". (we get food with so much of difficulty, how can I buy you clothes). Radha's mother had never seen pads, so for her it always remained clothes. Her life became pathetic and she dropped out from her school. Her dreams shattered.
Every year thousands of poor girls drop out from school just because they cannot afford sanitary napkins. It's a genuine issue not a taboo. One should talk about it. There's a hope that one day it will become a normal case like we treat- fever, cough and cold. Wish that every girl could achieve her dreams and every boy will support them whether father, brother, friend or husband.