Culturally, in India,
menstruations are considered dirty and impure and during periods girls are
discouraged to attend school and stay home. The unavailability of sanitary
pads, inadeguate sanitation and absence of separate toilet for girls in
schools, has a huge impact on girl school attendance and is a major reason of
dropout of girls from school. The main challenges at schools are identified as
lack of soap, clean toilets, clean water privacy and sanitary pads supply.
Moreover, there’s no facility to dispose of the soiled sanitary towels and no
private area for girls to change their underwear or sanitary napkins and manage
their hygiene. Menstruation continues to be a subject of gender disparity in
India, because of a lack of awareness makes for a major problem in India’s
menstrual hygiene scenario.
In Delhi, 40% of girls in
government schools stay home during periods, for reasons such as unavailability
of private place to manage periods, lack of running water supply, absence of
disposal system for pads/clothes and lack of bathroom for girls. Girls are
forced to stay away from school because toilets are open and there’s no privacy
and also girls are hesitant to seek permission to go home. The reasons for
absenteeism are different, one of the most frequent one is the lack of running
water supply. Out of six girls, one school had no separate toilets for girls.
Many girls complained that the toilets did not have regular water supply,
forcing them to stay at home during menstruation. Additionally, cramps and
shame are an incentive to drop out from school.
For some parents, puberty
also indicates a sign of maturity for girls: time for them to get married. Thus,
improving sanitation facilities and hygiene services could have a great impact
on improving girls’ attendance in school. There’s an urgent need to improve
basic facilities to cut out absenteeism. The solution is Menstrual Hygiene
Management (MHM), that it is the access of adeguate information, preparation,
and support to manage menstruation in a healthy, safe way. It can further social and economic
empowerment and growth. MHM need the involvement of teachers whom are
fundamental to reach out girls with correct information and skills to manage
their periods. Girls and teachers have to discuss on menstruation.
Keep girls in school is not
only important for their own health and well-being but for the success of the
entire community. When a girl finishes secondary school, she is less likely to
experience child marriage, face domestic abuse and suffer from long-term
complications. As a result, educated women are more likely to have fewer,
healthier children, who are then more likely to get an education and pull
themselves out of poverty. MHM can affect the community also through demanding
need for privacy for managing their periods could persuade their parents to
construct toilet at home, the break of taboos surrounding periods and to carry
out message on hygiene practice into their households and community.
Some measures that can
improve the situations can be are the development of water and sanitation
facilities in school girls’ toilets including the incinerator for safe disposal
of napkins have shown its impact on the school attendance. This can reduce the
dropout rate of girls in school. In 2015 the government of India launched
national guidelines on MHM to respond to nearly 113 million millions adolescent
girls’ at risk of dropping out of school due to the start of menarche. One of
the surveys that informed the National Guidelines found that in 14,724
government schools only 53% had a separate and usable girls’ toilet.
We, at HEEALS, believe that
MHM is fundamental for girls’ education and improvement. That’s why we
implemented MHM measures into our programs for girls our school, through our Menstrual
Hygiene and Girl Education Project
in which we give girls classes on the importance of menstrual hygiene
practices, free booklets and sanitary pads in Northern regions of India.
-Bene
MH Intern
-Bene
MH Intern
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