One of good things about watching the Oscars this year was learning about the film Period. End of Sentence. It won the award for best documentary short subject. I watched it on Netflix the very next day. The film was the brainchild of a group of highschool students in Los Angeles and their teacher Melissa Berton who wanted to tell the story of young girls in India who don’t have access to affordable sanitary pads. Because of this the girls stay home from school when they have their period or suffer serious health problems because they use dirty rags or sometimes even ash instead of sanitary napkins.
Set in rural India the film brings to light the deep stigma still attached to menstruation in much of the country. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi and produced by Guneet Monga the film also highlights the work of Arunachalam Muruganantham an Indian inventor who created a simple machine to make affordable biodegradable sanitary napkins. In the film the inventor teaches a group of women in the village of Hapur to make the napkins with his machine and they sell them and use the money to finance their own education and improve their lives. Arunachalam Muruganantham is inspired by these girls trying to build a future for themselves. He says “the strongest creature on earth is not the elephant, not the tiger, but the girl.”
After watching Period. End of Sentence I also watched Padman on Netflix. It is an inspiring movie which tells the story of inventor Arunachalam Muruganantham and shows how his sanitary pad machine is enabling women all over India to have access to affordable personal hygiene products and in the process helping them to become independent, educated and empowered. Padman is certainly worth watching as well.
At the Oscars Melissa Berton accepted her award saying “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.” Her film as well as Padman profile an important initiative. You can support it at The Pad Project which is directly related to the two films. Here is a list of ten other organizations that have similar initiatives in other countries.
Other posts………
Meeting the Street Children of Dehli
What Next? 
Pingback: Half The Sky | What Next?