India wins at the Oscars after a decade

Guneet Monga's Period - End of Sentence, based on the topic of the deep stigma associated with menstruation and delving upon the work of real life Pad Man Arunachalam Muruganantham has just created history by grabbing an Oscar for Best Documentary (Short) at the 91st Academy Awards.

Guneet Monga, ecstatic about the win which comes a decade since A.R. Rahman registered a twin win at Oscars, said, "Thank you to the Academy for the highest honour and for recognising the efforts of the young girls from Oakwood school in LA to Kathikera in UP in helping us shatter the glass ceiling. Periods are normal and in no way do they stops us from achieving anything. This has been more than 10 years of work of Action India run by Gauri Chaudhary on educating reproductive rights on the ground in many villages. Feminist Majority Movement and Girls learn International have been pushing this cause in US. Every girl in India or anywhere around the world needs to know this and hear this loud and clear. Period is an end of a sentence but not a girl's education. Here is to more girl power... I really want every girl to know that each one of them is a goddess. Now, that we have an oscar, Let's go change the world.

While we sure are ecstatic about how proud Guneet has made the country, Period. End of Sentence is just another step in the global efforts against period stigma. Many organisations, artists and filmmakers are working towards doing away with the 'shame'. In recent times, Bollywood films like Phullu and Padman (based on the life of Muruganantham) have also made huge strides in normalising the conversation around menstruation.