Abida Sultana (Sipong Lemla)
Menstrual hygiene day is held on 28th May every year. It is to spread awareness about menstrual care, hygiene and to highlight the issues faced by those who do not have access to sanitary pads, clean water, safe places to practice menstrual hygiene. The 2022 theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day is “making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030”. The purpose of this theme is to raise awareness about period poverty, to de-stigmatise, remove taboos and to make menstruation acceptable as a normal thing by 2030.
Menstruation is a biological process in girls and women at their reproductive stage where the uterus shed blood through the vagina every month starting from menarche till menopause. It is a natural process and can last for 3-5 days but may vary from individuals to individuals.
Girls and women go through pain, stress, discomfort during the menstrual period. Awareness about menstrual hygiene is very poor because of attached stigma, lack of education, social exclusion and gender inequality. Stigma around menstruation can prevent women and girls from seeking treatment for menstruation related health problems and menstrual hygiene practices. The teasing, shaming and discrimination around menstruation makes them feel socially isolated and affects them psychologically. They become hesitant to talk about menstruation openly and the subject becomes a taboo. This adversely affects their dignity and prevents them from achieving of the highest attainable standard of health and well-being. The girls become conscious of the period stain and there is high tendency of missing out classes during menstruation and their performance in classes gets affected. Girls and women from poor socioeconomic background faces period poverty where they have to make choice between buying food and buying sanitary products. Lack of facilities like sanitary napkins, water supply, soaps which are necessary for menstrual hygiene add to the problem and they resort to using mud, cloth pieces and leaves during the period which in turn leads to increase in the chances of getting infection. All these tend to make them underperform in various aspects of their lives.
Access to sanitary pads, clean water, privacy and safe place to practice menstrual hygiene should be considered a priority. Sanitary products should be treated as an essential commodity because menstruation is not a choice but a biological process that majority of girls and women experiences it for the most part of their life. The schools and colleges should provide free sanitary napkins. There should be an awareness session in schools for young girls where they are provided platform that creates awareness, to talk about menstruation and to break the taboo surrounding it. There should be awareness programmes on sex education and reproductive health in schools. The uniforms should be made into dark colour so that they do not have to worry about the stain. There should be removal of taxes on sanitary products so that they become affordable to the everyone. Observing menstrual hygiene day provides a platform for advocating better policy to treat menstrual health as a priority, to promote health and to remove the negative behaviour surrounding menstruation.
The writer is currently pursuing Master of Public Health (MPH) from Ambedkar University Delhi and holds Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery.
