The Positive Impact of Pads on Girls’ Mental Health

The Positive Impact of Pads on Girls’ Mental Health

by Saniya Islam for HEEALS India

Pads, seemingly unimportant throwaway factors of a woman’s life. But what happens when that commonplace essential is suddenly no longer available? This is the circumstance for millions of young girls across India who lack this basic menstrual necessity. Although it may seem unimportant or an easily overlooked issue, the impact of a scarcity in sanitary pads has many overwhelming implications on girls’ minds.

There are a myriad of schools across India who lack the proper resources in order for girls to manage their periods. This serious issue in accommodation has resulted in many girls being unable to attend school as they have no means to control their cycle. A survey conducted has shown that 11% of girls identify menstruation as a factor affecting their presence in school. Consequently, girls fear their periods in embarrassment of staining their clothes or the smell that may be produced - associating shame with a natural process undergone by 26% of our world’s population. Girls are prevented from pursuing their education and living out their full potential at school due to a lack of proper sanitary products.

How does this affect the mental health of girls, however? Lack of proper resources to support girls being able to have normal, healthy, and clean menstrual health creates a stigma around this normal cycle. It leads girls to back away from pursuing their interests at school and develops the idea that they should feel ashamed of themselves and their bodies just for being women. The goal in educating girls should be to empower their strengths and give them the mediums to pursue their passions, not to make a part of puberty into their weakness. Shortages in sanitary pads are just another obstacle they feel they must overcome to have an equal place as boys do.

There is a solution to all of this. NGOs and organizations like HEEALS India are making an effort to provide girls with pads so that they can have the proper resources to simply exist in the same way that their male counterparts have been for decades. HEEALS’ goal is to allow girls to pursue their dreams without having to worry about the small things. Please consider aiding in their effort by donating or volunteering today! Let’s empower women who have already been set back in life to keep climbing to the top.

EMAIL : COMMUNICATIONS@HEEALS.ORG

WHATSS APP: +91-7982316660

Sources used for this article:

Sivakami, Muthusamy et al. “Effect of menstruation on girls and their schooling, and facilitators

of menstrual hygiene management in schools: surveys in government schools in three

states in India, 2015.” Journal of global health vol. 9,1 (2019): 010408.

doi:10.7189/jogh.09.010408

Lufadeju, Yemi. “Fast Facts: Nine Things You Didn’t Know about Menstruation.” UNICEF, 25

May 2018,

www.unicef.org/press-releases/fast-facts-nine-things-you-didnt-know-about-menstruation