World Health Day is an important day in the RevSportz calendar. Each year we seize the day as an opportunity to record and convey messages of health awareness from icons in the sporting world. Messages which can inspire many who are possibly dealing with issues of health or lack of health awareness, and whether it be women’s or mental health, we have covered a wide spectrum.
This year at the Trailblazers Conclave, our flagship event, I had the occasion to speak with two of our leading women athletes, both Olympic medallists – Paris double medallist Manu Bhaker and Tokyo Olympics medal winner Lovlina Borgohain. And to both I had posed questions relating to women’s health and specifically menstrual health awareness in India.
Also Read: On World Health Day, it’s important to remember that even our champions struggle
Both Manu and Lovlina are celebrated as figures of women’s empowerment in the country. Manu, post-Paris Olympics, has been feted widely and yet, few ask her questions beyond the realm of those medal wins. However, when an icon like Manu speaks on more universal topics of women’s empowerment, and empowerment through the awareness of health, it surely travels. Asked about the need to speak openly on periods and menstrual health, Manu agreed that women in India need to speak more often and more openly about menstruation and the issues surrounding it. The larger message here – health is not only a state of not being unwell, it extends largely to also speaking about every aspect of health, and one’s body and its processes.
Lovlina, on her part, spoke about her empowerment journey through her sport and how, for her, it has been empowering to be able to inspire other girls, and especially those from her home state to take up the rigorous sport of boxing. For her, yoga practice has been a go-to for dealing with menstrual issues so much so that she recommends it now for other women to ease out any pain or difficulty relating to their monthly cycles.
Today, both podcast segments will carry parts of the above conversations – and the message for women’s empowerment, women’s health and its awareness. For the need, for there to be more conversations on every part of the spectrum of women’s health, including but not limited to menstruation and menstrual health. And for health and the conversation around it to be an important connector in the movement for women’s empowerment. Because health is wealth!