The documentary that shows how they experience menstruation in India

Have you ever thought about the stigmas that still exist around menstruation? “Period. End of sentence” is a Netflix documentary where we are shown how women live their periods in India and what are the social and hygienic conditions they have to go through month after month.

We tell you a little more about the film so you can add it to your list on this streaming platform.

‘Period. End of Sentence’, the Netflix documentary focused on menstruation

Menstruation is still a taboo in society. Despite the efforts of institutions and companies to create social programs with initiatives in favor of dissemination of information and distribution of personal hygiene products to bring about a change in the population, there is still a very long way to go.

“Period. End of Sentence” is a documentary film created by the NGO The Pad Project and directed by Rayka Zehtabchi; Its premiere was in 2018 at various film festivals, while the general public could enjoy this film until 2019 on the Netflix streaming platform.

Its purpose is to make known the reality of women in India during their period and how the invention and initiative of Arunachalam Muruganantham has helped hundreds of women from the village of Kathikhera, located on the outskirts of New Delhi. In this documentary, we closely follow the installation of his feminine pad machine, which he sells to nearby towns.

The women living in Kathikhera are fighting a silent war against prejudice about menstruation in their village. Their limited access to hygiene products has resulted in girls missing school and, in many cases, interrupting their studies permanently. When this machine arrived in their village, it gave way to the manufacture and marketing of “FLY” sanitary napkins, which achieved a positive change for them during their tenure and a significant progress for their community.

Stigmatization of menstruation

In 2013, The Pad Project’s director, Melissa Berton, took a group of students from Oakwood School to the United Nations’ annual Commission on the Status of Women”; at this event, students learned about Muruganantham’s initiative to create sanitary napkins with low-cost materials of natural origin for women and girls in Kathikhera to help them access decent menstruation, inspiring the NGO and the girls to raise funds and explore how they could help build a machine that would speed up the manufacturing of health products.

This also inspired the production of the documentary “Period. End of Sentence” with the aim of showing the world the problem of not addressing this type of situation which not only affects women in India but also many societies around the world, which putting them at risk during their periods due to poor hygiene and infections that they may attract if they do not have the appropriate information and products. Without taking into account that the majority of girls and women have been deprived of their education and often punished for menstruation.

This film was awarded the Oscars in 2019 in the Best Short Film category. We invite you to enjoy this short, you will not regret it.

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