India shines at Oscars, 'Period. End of Sentence' wins Documentary Short Subject
The Short Film is based on Menstruation
Los Angeles, Feb 25: A film on menstruation, set in rural India, titled Period. End of Sentence, has won the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category at the 91st Academy Awards.
Award-winning filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi has directed the short film, which has been produced by Indian producer Guneet Monga's Sikhya Entertainment.
The film came to into being as a part of The Pad Project, started by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles and their teacher, Melissa Berton.
I'm not crying because I'm on my period or anything. I can't believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar, Zehtabchi said in her acceptance speech.
She also gave a nod to Monga.
Guneet Monga - know that you have been empowering women all over the world fight for menstrual equality, she added.
Dedicating the award to her school, Berton said the project was born because her students in LA and people in India wanted to make a human rights difference .
I share this award with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the entire team and cast. I share this with the teachers and students around the worlds - a period should end a sentence, not a girl's education, she said.
The documentary feature 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 .
"WE WON!!! To every girl on this earth... know that you are a goddess... if heavens are listening... look MA we put @sikhya on the map," Monga tweeted after the win.
Other documentary shorts nominated in the category were "Black Sheep", "End Game", "Lifeboat" and "A Night at the Garden".
There has been an increased focus on period hygiene in India, which was also the subject of a mainstream Bollywood movie Padman , starring Akshay Kumar in the lead role in a biopic on Arunachalam Muruganantham, who started making low cost pads in his village despite being ostracised.
India's moment at the Oscars comes exactly a decade after A R Rahman and sound engineer Resul Pookutty won the Academy awards for "Slumdog Millionaire" in 2009.
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SC asks Centre to consider amending law on terminating pregnancy of rape survivors
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to a plea by AIIMS seeking to set aside its order allowing a 15-year-old girl to medically terminate her 30-week pregnancy, and asked the Centre to consider amending the law to permit rape survivors to terminate unwanted pregnancies even beyond 20 weeks.
The top court said when there is pregnancy due to rape, there should not be a time limit.
Law needs to be organic and in sync with evolving time, it stressed.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said this is a case of child rape and the survivor will have a lifelong scar and trauma if termination is not allowed.
The top court said if the mother does not have permanent disability then it should be carried out.
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It asked AIIMS to counsel parents of the survivor over the issue and said the decision has to be of the person concerned.
"There are children for adoption. In this country we have lot of sympathies...There are deserted, abandoned children on the streets and even mafias on it. We have to look at them. This is an unwanted pregnancy of a 15-year-old child.
"This is a curative petition. Unwanted pregnancy cannot be thrusted on a person. Imagine she is a child. She should be studying now. But we want to make her a mother. Imagine the pain, the humiliation the child has suffered in this," the bench said.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for AIIMS, mentioned the curative plea, and said the termination of pregnancy is not possible.
"It will be a live baby with severe deformities. Minor mother will have lifelong health issues and cannot reproduce. Minor mother will have lifelong health issues. This child can be given for adoption. It has been 30 weeks now. It is a viable life now," she said.
The top court said the decision on termination has to choice of the survivor and her parents and AIIMS may help them take an informed decision.
On April 24, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had allowed the girl to medically terminate her pregnancy of 30 weeks.
