Uttarakhand Father Celebrates Daughter's First Period With Cake

A video of a father in Uttarakhand, Jitendra Bhatt, defying taboos surrounding menstruation and celebrating his daughter’s first period is doing the viral rounds on social media. The celebration is a cycle breaker, smashing social stigmas.

The video shows a cake-cutting party organized by the girl’s father to celebrate the new phase of her life. Jitendra Singh, a music teacher, is a resident of Udham Singh Nagar, Kashipur city. He decorated the room with balloons and bought a cake to celebrate his daughter's first period.

The event was attended by a large group of people and more than just a get-together, it was organised to break the taboo surrounding menstruation, educate people on periods, and fight against discrimination.

Father Celebrates Daughters First Period

Jitendra Bhatt took to social media to share the proud moment of his daughter’s new phase. Rather than shying away, the girl’s parents sat her down and provided information about menstruation, smashing myths and misperceptions, and clarifying doubts, emphasising the need to normalise menstruation.

Their gesture promotes open conversations about periods in society and encourages people to embrace menstruation without any shame or stigma.

It’s heartening to see parents of this generation doing their bit to make a change, not just in their families but also in society. After all, change starts at home. Posting this video on social media was an excellent move to advocate for normalising menstruation in society.

Unfortunately, even today, many families, including educated ones, confine women in their households to regressive stigma during menstruation. It’s often seen as some kind of communicable disease. Right from their first period, the majority of girls are only taught about the stigma to adhere to. However, seldom do people talk about normalising menstruation, period education, and period hygiene. Wouldn't that be the need of the hour?

Don’t go out, stay indoors, don’t touch anything, hide the sanitary pads, don’t enter the kitchen, don’t visit temples, and so on—the list in the rulebook given to a girl who has her periods is huge. Also, there’s something called the "puberty ceremony," celebrated in many parts of India, which is nothing but an age-old way of sending information that the girl in a family is ready to get married. However, it’s still largely practised in our country, and most of the rituals don’t make sense; there’s no takeaway.

So how long will we keep upholding that tradition? It’s outright misogynistic and irrational, so isn’t it high time to get rid of it in the best interest of the future generation? Instead, a celebration like this will help break the stigma, normalise menstruation and spark a conversation on the subject in every household. 

It’s high time both men and women in every nook and corner of the country received period education. The narrative that periods make a woman impure is slowly changing, and this celebration video is an example of that.

Suggested Reading: Girl Gets First Period, Brother Kills Her Assuming Affair: Call For Menstruation Education!