Controversies attract people like ants to honey. So after Padmavat, here we are to discuss another controversy, The PadMan challenge! Ever thought why is it considered a controversy? After all the film, PadMan talks about a very serious issue that needs to be taken care of.
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After the Ice bucket and Mannequin challenge, now the internet is flooded with #PadMan challenge, where innumerable Bollywood celebs are joining hands to complete it. They are posing for a picture holding a sanitary napkin and posting it on social media and tagging 3-4 other celebs to complete the challenge. Akshay Kumar’s PadMan deals with the subject of menstrual hygiene and the fact that there is nothing to be ashamed about something as natural as menstruation. The question here is, is it actually spreading the cognizance or is it just another advertising gimmick?
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Akshay’s wife and famed author Twinkle Khanna took an initiative by tweeting “Yes that’s a pad in my hand and there is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s natural, PERIOD!”
And soon social media platforms saw a flush of plethora of images with pads calling it “ The PadManchallenge” featuring celebrities like Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor, Karan Johar, Neil Bhoopalam, Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Rajkumar Rao, Radhika Apte, Akshay Kumar and many others. It’s not just the B-town, sports personalities like Ravi Shastri, P.V. Sandhu are also going the extra mile to support it. Below are a few tweets and Instagram images of the same.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BevhVpCBxdX/?taken-by=deepikapadukone
https://www.instagram.com/p/BflUv5nH5wQ/?tagged=padmanchallenge
Comedienne Supriya Joshi, threw a sarcasm by stating, “Hi guys, something amazing happened this morning, I got my periods. And as many of you know, I have PCOS, so to get your period is an amazing feeling. I immediately ran to my sanitary napkin trash but found that I ran out of them.” Her sarcasm again flushed the social media. She further added “I saw my mom, dad, my grand-daughter, posing with a sanitary napkin. I asked them what they were doing with my pads, and they replied by saying, “Shut up silly girl, we are taking part in a movement that will change the course of history.” We’re going to make periods a thing of the past! The pad man challenge will empower the women! Don’t forget to use the hashtag otherwise you are not empowering anybody. Everybody used the pad as a selfie accessory and thrown the open pad where I continued to bleed into my clothes.”
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Apart from her, many others including Malika Dua and the general public also raised their voice to take steps towards the real issue.
It is absolutely true that movie PadMan regards a real super hero who produced low-cost sanitary pad manufacturing machine, but here we are just increasing trash by posing with a pad. The need of the hour craves for awareness amongst women who are still using “Leaves”, ‘Rag”, ‘Newspaper” and “Sand” to deal with their menstruation. One out of five Indian girls drops out of school because of shame and unawareness regarding menstruation. The uncountable number of women dies because of infection during this 5-day cycle.
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The vicious circle doesn’t end here. Another emerging problem is that those who are aware of sanitary napkins but can’t afford it. Manufacturing prices remain low but its marketing and dealers fees increase the prices of this essential need. So hats off to Arunachalam Muruganantham, who made the cheapest pad manufacturing machine but now it’s our duty to gift a packet of the sanitary napkin to a lady in need instead of hyping this trend of selfies with pads. A better trend would be selfies of giving pads to women in need. Where are all the NGOs by the way? Too busy sleeping and shouting on pointless issues thanks to political funding? Oh well!
