Education is a Fundamental Right in India. Article 21A of the Indian Constitution provides children between the age of 6 to 14 the right to get free and compulsory education. The parliament enacted an act called the right of children to free and compulsory education act or Right To Education Act (RTE) on 4th august 2009 under Article 21A to make sure that every child gets the proper education. Then why is that the boys are sent in a different classroom when the topic of menstruation is taught.
As indians, we have made sex a taboo topic, so gradually anything closely related to it becomes taboo as well. Menstruation for years has been a subject no one wanted to talk about (even adults) freely with fear of shame or dirty looks from total strangers. If you say periods or menstruation amongst people, they look at you as if you have said ‘voldemort’ in the middle of hogwarts. But if you think about it the root of this problem lies somewhat in the school system.
A school is a place where students go to learn new things every day or things that will help them with their future. Which is why it’s weird when that the same school where every child should get the same opportunity to learn and grow would take away the chance of learning from a group of children based on their gender and a taboo. Now keeping in mind that most schools are trying to break barriers and the traditional ways of teaching about reproduction, some schools are still stuck with the same mindset that boys should not know anything about menstruation and keep them away when this particular topic is taught at school.
Do these boys not have the same rights as the girls to learn about the natural biological phenomena such as menstruation, why are they deprived of a learning opportunity? Isn’t this illegal, doesn’t this go against article 21A. Every time this happens the barrier between the genders increases making them strangers about each other. This shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century when women are trying to be equal to men. Boys shouldn’t be separated and girls shouldn’t be made to believe that they can’t talk about it freely. School life for children should be a happy and learning time and never a place of confusion.
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