By Abhijit Bhomia:
Shahana, an eleven year old girl lived in a remote village. She was a student of grade IV. She used rags for managing her menstrual blood. One day after school she came home, changed the soaked rag, washed and dried it under a bean tree for reuse. A harmful insect settled on the rag. Without noticing the insect’s presence, she used this rag the next day. Unfortunately the insect entered her body through the vagina. She felt a serious stomach pain and was taken to hospital. After a week she died.
Who is responsible for her death? Her parents, her teachers or the SOCIETY? Society plays a vital role in the rise and downfall of a civilization. In rural areas, people still believe in old traditions and often land in trouble. The government has to share an equal amount of blame as it is responsible for not reaching out to the villages and spread awareness amongst villagers.
The above mentioned case of Shahana is testimony to the negligence of the government and of the village men who curb women’s space. This case is just one in millions and there are many which are left unnoticed and unheard.
Yes, I am talking about the problem faced by women in rural areas while they menstruate.
A normal woman spends around six to seven years of her life menstruating and she should have proper knowledge about menstruation cycle. A woman has to be careful while in her menstrual period and keep in mind her menstrual hygiene. If she is using a cloth then she should wash it with clean water and dry it at an appropriate and should not use it when it is damp. One more problem is the sanitation facility, girls skip their school while menstruation because of poor sanitation.
Women and girls need to change their sanitary napkins three or four times a day during the period of menstruation especially in the first three days. The vast majority of women and girls use rags- usually torn from old saris, instead of sanitary towels/napkin. Rags are washed and used several times. There is no private place to change and clean the rags and often no safe water and soap to wash them properly. A culture of shame and taboo forces them to seek for well hidden places even in their homes to dry the rags. These places are often damp, dark and unhealthy.
This practice is responsible for a significant proportion of illness and infection associated with female reproductive health. Rags that are unclean, cause urinary and vaginal infection and very often serious infections are left untreated.
It brings shiver to my spine telling you that women in rural areas use ash, sand and even plastic as sanitary pads. The young girls are shy of changing their pads and even if they do then they don’t have a place to dispose them. Such is the condition, it can only get worse if nothing is done. The patriarchy of our society further complicates the problem, if nothing else.
Menstrual hygiene is one of the most important yet neglected issues in rural India. What the girls and women suffer at the hands of embarrassment and shame is unimaginable. Immediate action is required on this front, of course many NGOs are making efforts to solve such a problem which is not even talked about, but then we need mass support and government initiatives at the same time.
All of this is linked to our high levels of maternal mortality, which can only be brought down by ameliorating sanitation and hygiene for women in rural areas. Sanitary napkins, which are best designed and suited for menstruation, should be made available at affordable prices to women, it is a necessity.
Awareness campaigns for menstrual hygiene along with an active participation from these women themselves, in voicing their problems and solving them mutually with women community action, is the immediate need of the hour.
Image courtesy: http://tribalgirls.frenchriceup.com/indiatribalgirls/
Shraddha Sankhe
I believe more than creating awareness on this issue, we need action. It is not a Law and Order problem that needs to be addressed in the Assembly. Simply put, if people save their one buck each day(instead of offering alms to beggars on traffic signal- out of sympathy) and buy a beggar-girl a pack of sanitary napkins-we can call ourselves a lot more sensitive.
Speaking of rural areas, NGOs may do their work. What can you and I do? We can start off with first discovering the harsh reality of water scarcity. Add that with a social stigma-sitting isolated for ‘those’ 4 days of the month-“don’t touch food, pickles and spices” and psychological guilt felt by little girls and older women.
No, let us not blame Government for being ignorant. May the rural society first grow up. Government policies will happen. Rural areas first need an open mind before they’re offered concrete Public Health and Sanitation programs. The latter won’t work if the women themselves consider themselves-‘disadvantaged’.
Saurabh Mohan Sharma
Have you ever noticed a sanitary napkin’s advertisement on TV? I doubt if some rural women could even understand what the advertisement is about. It may sound absurd but perhaps we need to come out more openly about it just like Condoms and contraceptive Pills.
Although there isn’t any provision of cheap sanitary napkins to rural women but our National Rural Health Policy does have a program for creating maximum awareness about Menstrual hygiene through the Accredited Social Health Activists in villages. But along with that government and NGOs should encourage more and more Public participation into this so that women in rural areas don’t have to suffer because of lack of awareness about personal hygiene and uncomfort during the menses.
Atiya
Its an old mail. But GOONJ takes up similar initiatives. Anybody who feels for the subject, please feel free to pitch in.
“Life has changed. I never knew this small cloth has such a big value in my life. Right from the beginning my mother told me it’s my sin which comes out as blood. I used to wonder- am I such a bad person that every month I commit so many mistakes?†Bano can talk endlessly on how the small piece of cloth in the shape of sanitary pad has changed her life.
Not just the physical comfort and the feeling of well being, it’s about basic dignity of Bano and millions of women like her who are forced to use things like sand, ash, jute gunny bags, pieces of paper, rugs, rags anything which can absorb- in the name of a basic need called sanitary pad.
Face it, it is a highly taboo and closed subject or issue. I remember when few years ago we started opening the subject and initiated dialogues in public- in rural areas, urban slums, corporates, schools- anywhere and everywhere it brought on a distinct discomfort followed by shock among the people. They felt connected with the reality but highly disconnected with the fact that everyone took such a major issue for granted.
Today GOONJ produces about 2,00,000 napkins a month and we can see ripples. The subject is opening; more people are getting into talking and doing something about this. The central government announced plans of reaching pads to 150 districts, the implementation is yet to be seen and we need to see how it unfolds but leave apart the merits and demerits for a moment, we are happy that at least people have started thinking about this most ignored need of women on a policy level..
(……………..)
With best
anshu
Anshu Gupta (Ashoka Fellow)
Founder Director
GOONJ..
Tel.- 011- 26972351, 41401216
Email-mailgoonj@gmail.com
Website: http://www.goonj.org
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Abhijit Bhomia
@Shraddha
I agree with you and your thoughts but if a rural society has to grow then it needs awareness about certain facts and certain things which are happening around them and which are essentials of life. This can only happen when people like you and me have a larger platform to provide support and a larger platform is only possible with the help of the government and the NGOs. You and me cannot do something BIG single handedly which affects the masses, but we can surely contribute in our own ways.
And you have mentioned that rural areas need an open mind,how can they be open minded if we do not spread awareness among them, they just need guidance and awareness and then everything will be in its place.
Arvind
HI Abhijit, can you share where this unfortunate incident (Shahana’s case) happened? I am doing research on menstruation hygiene. If anyone has any info regarding the diseases and reproduction problems caused due to unhygienic menstruation conditions then plz share. Thank you