Period. End of Sentence: Makers of Oscar-winning documentary short film accused of violating child rights

A Karnataka-based NGO, Mythri Speaks, has claimed that the makers of  Period. End of Sentence , which recently won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary, have violated children’s rights and misrepresented facts. The documentary features the work of Arunachalam Muruganantham , a social entrepreneur who has been working towards breaking the taboo surrounding menstrual hygiene for years. It is set in Hapur village outside Delhi, where women lead a quiet revolution as they fight against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation. For generations, these women did not have access to sanitary pads, which lead to health issues and girls dropping out from schools. When a sanitary pad vending machine is installed in the village, the women learn to manufacture and market their own pads, empowering their community. They name their brand FLY. [caption id=“attachment_6017891” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Period. End of Sentence.[/caption] Sinu Joseph, the founder of Mythri Speaks, in an article for HuffPost, points out a scene where the filmmakers entered a classroom unannounced, ignoring consent and picked one of the students to speak about menstruation. Joseph writes that the girl can be seen “cringing with embarrassment.” She further writes that the short violates UNICEF’s guidelines for journalists reporting on children and even those enlisted by the National Commission For Protection Of Child Rights. Joseph explains that the reluctance to talk about menstruation in young women and girls has been depicted in the short film as shame. She writes, “The film-makers clearly lack even an iota of sensitivity. Or for that matter, even sense.” She also accuses Muruganantham of fudging data about the use of sanitary pads in the country and also demands to know which researchers the filmmakers consulted during the making of Period. End of Sentence. Joseph brings up a  promotional video that Netflix has released for the short, which also features Priyanka Chopra. She claims that the promo “establishes the white supremacist thinking inherent in the film” and the statements made by Chopra in the video are not based on hard facts. Firstpost has reached out to Guneet Monga for a comment and will update the copy accordingly.