A young Muslim woman walks through the alleys of Baghori village. Despite coming from a relatively comfortable economic background, her life, and that of her relatives and friends, is deeply affected by the taboos and stigma surrounding menstruation. Sitarganj, Uttarakhand, India, November 2025.
Out For Blood
Ginevra Bonina | GE, India
Photographer: Ginevra Bonina
Exhibit Title: Out For Blood
Location: GE, India
Out for Blood is a report on period poverty in India, where menstruation marks inequality and control, but also becomes a means to reclaim bodies and rights.
Menstruation is a physiological process affecting people of reproductive age with female reproductive systems.
Despite being a universal experience—one that influences every aspect of daily life, from psycho-physical well-being to sexual and reproductive health, from education and work to spiritual life—it remains surrounded by taboos, stigma, and superstitions deeply rooted in mythology, religion, medicine, and culture. These prejudices have tangible consequences on the health of those who menstruate, turning periods into an invisible and underestimated issue.
Out for Blood was conceived as a long-term project to document the most extreme consequence of this reality in India: period poverty, defined as limited or nonexistent access to safe menstrual products, adequate sanitation facilities, and menstrual education.
Out of approximately 355 million women of reproductive age, only 45% are aware of menstruation before menarche. 50% still rely on cloths—a non-hygienic practice and a potential risk factor for infections and disease. 24% percent of girls drop out of school after menarche due to inadequate sanitation facilities.
Through voices from Hindu, Muslim, and Adivasi communities, the reportage documents lives and environments while addressing inequality, violence, taboos, sustainability, and access to healthcare. This is not solely a public health issue, but a human rights concern, as menstruation functions as a cross-cutting tool of control. In India, bodies become sites of public judgment—pawns within a system where control operates in two ways: the body deemed dangerous and impure, and the body considered at risk, to be protected yet still controlled.
Out for Blood aims to be a tool for awareness and self-determination. Menstruation is a powerful language—an ancestral form of knowledge that reveals health, emotions, and profound needs. Recognizing it as power means reclaiming the body as a site of struggle, resistance, and liberation.
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