CHANDIGARH: Former sarpanch of Bibipur village in Haryana, Sunil Jaglan has started the ‘Menopause Classes for Men’ campaign in a bid to break down the stigma of menopause, considered a taboo in women’s health.The campaign is being run from the village chaupals to the universities. In the last ten months, 70 such classes in the villages across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, besides a few universities, have been held. Talking with this newspaper, Sunil Jaglan says,” I have held such classes in the Jind, Gurugram, Hisar, Nuh and Rewari districts in Haryana; Ayodhya, Merrut and Lucknow districts in Uttar Pradesh; Bhopal, Ujjain and Indore districts in Madhya Pradesh; Mumbai, Nagpur and Wardha in Maharashtra besides a few universities.’’”A few days ago, I visited several villages in Haryana and organised these classes at the village chaupal. Men ranging from 25 to 70 years of age attended the classes. When I started discussing the topic of menopause, a few people even got up and left. Others sat silently, exchanging glances or looking down. However, I was determined to initiate the conversation on menopause and continued talking. After a while, the atmosphere turned more relaxed, and it became clear that men over 40 years had little knowledge about menopause,’’ he said.”While older married men knew that a woman’s periods stop at some point, they did not understand why it was such a big deal,” Jaglan added.Jaglan shared that a few said that menopause saves money as they don’t have to buy menstrual products anymore. He also shared that a few even commented that Menopause is good as they no longer need to use protection during sex.”The men had no idea that the hormonal changes during menopause seriously affect a woman’s health. These changes go beyond just physical symptoms and also impact her mental and emotional well-being,” he said. “When I explained how men can support their wives and mothers during menopause, some started nodding in agreement, while others remained silent. This is a crucial topic that needs to be discussed openly,’’ he added.Recalling how it all started, Jaglan says, “When I was a child, I used to watch an advertisement on the television in which a girl sits quietly while others girls were playing. The girls even asked her what was going on and said that something should be happening… When I questioned my parents what was this advertisement on, I never got an answer.’’ “In 2012, after becoming Sarpanch, I brought a pad-making machine for the women of the village but when I started telling women about it, I realized that I did not know anything about the subject. I started learning about the topic. In 2016, we started the ‘Padmitra campaign’, at that point of time, when people used to post photos on social media with a pad in hand, people used to trail them, but I did not give up. Later, Padmitra was written in the profiles on social media and people accepted it,’’ he said. Jaglan added that he started reading more about periods and even started a ‘period chart campaign’ starting from his daughter Nandini.”In 2019, a ‘period chart campaign’ was started in which the period dates of all the women of the house were written on a chart and was put on the wall. It was initially not accepted by the people, the family members tore the charts but we did not give up. Today, period charts have been installed in more than 40,000 houses,’’ he said. Jaglan said that in 2022, Lado Panchayat was organized and a demand was made to the Union Government to provide one day period leave working women in government and non-government places.
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