I am talking about private schools which charge us a large amount of money in the name of fees to provide our children with a quality education and healthy environment but not a sanitary pad.
Let me tell you about an incident. It was just a regular day and I was busy checking copies. A girl from my class came running to me to ask for a sanitary napkin because her preponed and she wasn’t prepared. I immediately asked her to find one in the infirmary. Her reply was shocking, “Ma’am, they are not giving it, they are saying that I’m lying.”
I became very angry and rushed to the infirmary. Thanks to my involvement, she at least got a pad. But it left with asking questions. Why was she denied a sanitary napkin? Later, I came to know that the school management doesn’t want to provide sanitary napkins. Their logic was that if they started providing napkins to the girls, the girls will make it a habit to get the pads for free from school.
Completely shocking, right? But this is true. They teach you about hygiene but what about menstrual hygiene? Yes, they will conduct a menstrual seminar once in a year to publish in their school magazine or to get some free pads from some company. Boys do not need to attend these seminars because they should not know what girls go through according to the school management.
It is actually surprising that the place where we learn to fight against all the taboos has made such an important health issue a taboo. Hardly any importance is given to menstrual hygiene.
We’re in the year 2018 and let’s accept the fact that girls menstruate and it is very normal. So next time, when you pay your child’s fee, ask them if they are providing sanitary pads to the girls with that money or simply improving their school’s infrastructure to get more admissions.