When it comes to menstrual health management, the two missing As are: Access and Awareness. Lack of access to sanitary pads and awareness around menstrual hygiene is the major roadblock to ensure menstrual health management.
My experience of working with the children and adolescents of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Wazirpur during my Masters helped me to understand the importance of robust implementation of policies and programmes and they cab help to tackle the of problems of accessibility and availability of sanitary pads.
In the year 2018, I got an opportunity to work with J.J. colony of Wazirpur community. A one-day session was organized on menstruation. The aim was to understand the prevailing silence around periods and pertaining issues. Therefore, a much-acclaimed documentary “Period. End of the Sentence” was screened to initiate the discussion. The session turned out to be a learning experience for me. I realized the importance of awareness and accessibility of pads in school and its impact on the mothers.
Teachers Were The First Source Of Information
According to a document “Normalizing Menstruation“, the mothers are the primary source of information around menstruation but, for the young girls of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, it’s their class teacher who introduced them to menstruation. The teacher helped them to understand that it’s a normal biological cycle, and therefore, it should not discourage them. The classroom sessions enabled them to understand the importance of menstrual hygiene. It was interesting to realize the bunch of young children I was interacting with had not even got their periods yet and were well aware of menstruation and its implication.
On the other hand, the mothers of young children clearly showed a sign of discomfort and took a lot more time to open up. They did relate to the documentary and accepted the existence of taboos, myths and stigma. Further, the source of information around periods for the mother of the young adolescents was either their mother, aunt or elder sister.
Availability Of Sanitary Pads
Interestingly, these children used to get a sanitary pad irrespective of the fact whether they have attained puberty or not. The availability of free sanitary pads helped few girls to use pads over clothes. Also, they used to give it to their mother. Interestingly, a mother shared her experience of using the sanitary pads for the first time.
Further, they did not have to ask their husbands to get them sanitary pads. Now they are readily available to them. The easy access of sanitary pad without any embarrassment helps women to have less worrisome periods. They can easily get sanitary pads without much hesitation. I believe the proper supply chain of low cost or free sanitary napkins and adequate implementation of policies of distribution of sanitary pads through schools, Anganwadi and government-run hospitals can help them to get sanitary pads.
Further, for children and women living in slums of Wazirpur availability of sanitary pads from school helped them to overcome the issue of itchiness and rashes. Earlier, the children used to use clothes instead of pads. The congested jhuggis and slums prove to be challenging to dry up clothes under the sun.
The congestion and narrow lanes of jhuggi make it difficult to wash it and dry the clothes under the sun. One of the mothers shared the woes of using clothes. She used to get rashes because of wearing clothes for long hours and using wet clothes. Moreover, to avoid consulting a doctor, they preferred using powder.
Policies And Programme
The young adolescents studying in the government schools of Delhi are provided with free sanitary pads through the Department of Education. The teachers were also imparted with training and awareness programmes around menstruation to help them disseminate the awareness around menstruation to adolescents. The awareness programme includes the role of proper diet, use of sanitary napkins and the part of existing Anganwadi centres.
The free sanitary pads are for the age group of 11 onwards. The programme does not discriminate between menstruating children and not menstruating children. These children were given sanitary pads during the last working days of each month. This programme is a massive step in menstrual health management. It is essential to spread awareness around menstruation even before the children hit puberty. It allows children to be prepared before they hit puberty and is a source of empowerment.