During my fieldwork in the villages of Aligarh India, I asked women one simple question — what stops you from getting health information?

I was ready for the usual answers. No internet. No money. No hospital nearby.

But nobody said that.

They went quiet. And then, slowly, they told me.

"We don't talk about these things."

That was the barrier. Not poverty. Not distance. Not illiteracy.

Silence.

A silence so deeply rooted that women with phones, women living near health centres, women who could read — still never sought health information. Because somewhere along the way, they had learned that a woman's body is not something you discuss openly. Not with neighbours. Not even with doctors.

A pain ignored. A symptom hidden. A question never asked.

My research on health literacy among women in India, showed me that we have been designing health communication for the wrong barriers. We build apps, print pamphlets, run campaigns — all assuming people want information but cannot access it.

But what about the woman who can access it — and still stays silent?

That silence is cultural. It is gendered. And it is one of the most overlooked barriers in public health today.

I think it is time we started talking about it.