Anitha Rao: Busting Taboos One Period at a Time

credit: Suburbanbloke/Flickr

"When I belong to an educated family and nobody told me about menstrual hygiene, how would those living in rural areas and slums know," Anitha Rao says.

That's why the 40-year-old social entrepreneur and activist in India, which has the world's highest number of women and girls menstruating at 355 million per month, has set up the Sakriya Charitable Trust, which offers free menstrual hygiene sessions to underprivileged women, reports the Times of India.

Rao, who started the nonprofit a decade ago after visiting schools and slums, says only 36% of women in India know "'why it happens, where it happens, and why it's crucial to have a healthy body,'" while only 16% of urban women practice menstrual hygiene, per the Times of India.

"They didn't know anything about breast or cervical cancer," Rao says.

"Pink blood indicates ovarian cancer and abortion, jam-like blood could mean fibroids, yellowish blood is due to hormonal imbalance, etc.

Nobody tells women what a healthy period blood should look like, not even doctors."

Rao, who travels the world as an airhostess, says she spent six months studying the subject and spoke to several doctors before setting up the nonprofit.

So far, she says

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