New Bollywood film tackles taboo of menstrual hygiene
NEW DELHI — It’s an unlikely scene in deeply conservative India: A hugely popular Bollywood male star grinning widely as he holds up a sanitary pad and talks of menstrual hygiene.
But that’s exactly what action hero Akshay Kumar did as he promoted his film “Padman,” which opened in theatres Friday. Kumar plays the lead role of a man who starts manufacturing inexpensive sanitary pads after he discovers his wife’s lack of access to them in a small town in southern India.
The subject of menstruation and menstrual hygiene is rarely, if ever, discussed openly in Indian homes.
At pharmacies and department stores, tampons and sanitary pads get the same treatment reserved for condoms — they are handed to customers discretely wrapped in black plastic bags kept on hand simply for the purpose of saving them any embarrassment.