In case you are a woman, likelihood is you didn’t actually know what a interval was all about earlier than it arrived. For many of us, it felt unintentional. Some thought they’d eaten one thing unsuitable, whereas others assumed they’d harm themselves. A number of years in the past, earlier than the web grew to become a part of our on a regular basis lives, most women who skilled their first interval have been left panicked and anxious.

As women tried to grasp the modifications of their our bodies, households and relations, within the title of custom, would typically sideline them for just a few days and later plan grand ceremonies with massive gatherings of visitors.

As we speak, many households are selecting a gentler path. 

As we speak, puberty is spoken about with extra openness. Households, colleges, and communities are slowly coming collectively to information each dad and mom and kids, making the change simpler to grasp and embrace with care.

As we have fun Worldwide Daughters Day on 28 September 2025, we share the story of a father who confirmed that small acts of understanding can change the whole lot. For his daughter, her first interval was not a supply of disgrace however a reminiscence of consolation and confidence.

A father who broke the principles

When Madhulika Sprint (45) from Odisha seems to be again on her first interval, it’s her father she remembers most. Nimai Charan Sprint, who was a retired colonel and an ENT specialist within the military within the Nineteen Seventies and 80s, helped her face it with out worry.

“My father is a physician, and perhaps that’s the reason he was so progressive in his ideas again then. If not for him, I’m not positive how I’d have dealt with my first interval,” Madhulika shares.

Throughout India, the primary indicators of puberty are sometimes handled as an enormous occasion. “It comes with a rule ebook. Ladies are instructed to not play open air, to not play with boys, to settle down, and lots of extra issues,” she laughs. “In my household, my father was the one one who broke all these guidelines. He instructed me, ‘You be who you might be and the way you need to be. That is only a organic change, and you may be positive.’”

A military physician’s steering at dwelling

When Madhulika acquired her first interval, she was in Class 5.

“My father seen it first and suggested my mom to research and ensure. When it occurred once more the next month, he sat down with me and defined scientifically what my physique was going via. He taught me the way to maintain myself clear, the way to use a sanitary pad, and that I need to keep away from unclean washrooms,” she remembers.

Again within the Eighties, sanitary napkins weren’t like those we now have in the present day. “They have been lengthy pads that got here with a belt, and my dad and mom patiently defined the way to use them. Within the military, pads have been made with gauze and cotton. My father even taught me the way to make these at dwelling so I might select what felt most comfy,” she says.

Madhulika fondly calls her father her “second mom”. Whereas relations held on to guidelines, her father set them apart — calling these restrictions a fantasy. “He centered extra on my food plan and what I ought to eat in order that I remained wholesome and my physique tailored to the change in the correct method.”

Now, as Madhulika goes via perimenopause, she nonetheless finds power within the classes her late father gave her many years in the past. “I’m so glad I had the possibility to have my father clarify issues to me after I felt most susceptible. Again then, it made me really feel safe, and in the present day it nonetheless provides me confidence,” she smiles.

Mother and father, intervals, and the facility of sport

What Madhulika present in her father’s care, many women nonetheless wrestle to obtain in their very own households. To vary that, Bengaluru-based physiotherapist Manasi Satalkar is working on the grassroots, encouraging dad and mom to help their daughters via sport.

Alongside her observe, she additionally works with a non-profit organisation – Merely Sport Basis – that companions with girls’s sports activities teams. After working profitable campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar, the staff is now in Rajasthan, reaching out to households with the identical message.

“Most dad and mom we meet throughout these campaigns say menstruation has been a significant hurdle of their daughters’ excelling. Nevertheless, the help women who’re already in sports activities obtain is commendable,” she shares.

How small gestures go away a mark

Manasi remembers a marketing campaign in Uttar Pradesh the place a wrestling coach carried pads and lemon juice for his trainees so they might proceed observe and keep energised.

In Bengaluru, she carried out a workshop on menstruation for ladies athletes. “Among the many 30 moms current, there was one father who had come alongside, merely to grasp how he might make his daughter extra comfy throughout her intervals. That stayed with me.”

For her, these small moments replicate a bigger fact: when fathers present up, they alter the story for his or her daughters. “It is crucial for everyone — women and men, moms and dads — to be a part of these programmes in order that our women really feel uplifted, safe, and cozy sufficient to pursue no matter they need to.”

A be aware to dads

As we mark Worldwide Daughters Day, here’s a reminder to all fathers: your function doesn’t finish with childhood. Whether or not it’s the first interval, teenage modifications, and even menopause, daughters really feel most secure and most assured when their fathers stand by them with understanding and care.

When fathers stand beside their daughters at each stage, they do greater than break taboos — they offer them the boldness to stroll via womanhood understanding they’re by no means alone.

Edited by Khushi Arora