When I take to the internet to talk about menstrual hygiene, it is one of my greatest privileges. More than 85% of the women in our country do not have access to proper sanitary products, and they use rags, sand, hay, ash etc. as alternatives to stop the flow of menstrual blood. In such a situation, it is extremely significant for us to realise how huge the problem is.
Menstruation is a normal physiological process for a biologically born woman, for 10-50 years of their life. As cisgender women, we do not choose to bleed. Access to menstrual hygiene should be treated as a right and not a luxury.
It was almost one and a half years back that I began extensive digital advocacy for this cause. It was for the occasion of protest against the 12% tax imposed on menstrual products by the government. It was one of the most unjust taxation imposed on women’s bodies. That was the first time I studied the numbers and found that at the time before tax exemption, a whooping 88% did not have access to menstrual products. That number was shocking. It was then I realised the enormity of the crisis. It is nothing short of a crisis and it is not being addressed!
A report published by UNICEF and Water Aid found that more than one third of the girls in South Asia miss school during periods due to lack of access to toilets and pads, and lack of proper education about menstruation.
Period poverty is the term used when there is a lack of sanitary products and other essentials like toilets and clean water, due to financial constraints.
United Nations has recognized menstrual hygiene as a global health and human rights issue. Rightly so, globally, 2.3 billion women lack access to menstrual hygiene and basic sanitation.
The crisis is due to financial, social and cultural factors. Not only did the Indian government fail to treat it as a public health and human rights issue and tackle it through proper expenditure and policy making, but also there is an exceeding prevalence of taboos and superstitions around menstruation. Around 71% of girls in India are unaware about menstruation before their first period.
Fourteen year old S. Vijaya was a class 7 student at Anaikadu village in Tamil Nadu. She was made to stay alone in a nearby hut. It is customary for a girl attaining puberty to stay in such period huts during menstruation. The same happened on November 17 when cyclone Gaja hit the Indian coast and started ravaging lives. Vijaya died after a tree fell on the hut. Her corpse was recovered later. 14-year-old young Vijaya succumbed to a taboo that several women are trying to fight.
In rural and illiterate belts, women often succumb to several serious health conditions due to the lack of open conversations about menstruation. Women who lack menstrual hygiene are at a 70% higher risk of reproductive tract infection.
Access to menstrual hygiene for all menstruating women is a fundamental issue of human rights, dignity and public health. Coupled with financial and socio-cultural restraining factors, menstrual health becomes a multi-faceted crisis that needs to be addressed at the earliest.