Menstrual Experiences of Indian Hindu Women: Parallel Agencies

This presentation argues that international intervention programs often overlook locally produced knowledge about menstruation and diminish the importance of women’s practices, agency, value systems, relationships, and of specific religious forms and participation. I examine dominant global approaches to menstrual health in the Global South through ethnographic research with approximately 75 Hindu women in India and a comparative sample of about 40 Hindu women in Bajura, Nepal (2024–2025). By adopting a critical approach towards literature, methods and theories from within a religious studies lens, and foregrounding ethnographic evidence, the study highlights parallel forms of agencies within religious menstrual practices.