How often do you think of the consequences of the way you dispose of your menstrual waste? The disposal of menstrual waste for many people ends at dustbins inside homes, workplaces, educational institutions, and other environments they might be present in. However, the disposal of menstrual waste much like other waste follows a chain that goes beyond your disposal of the waste into a dustbin.
The chain starts from our homes to collection centres and then to incinerators, landfills, or processing units just like for any other type of waste. However, the menstrual waste contains bodily fluids which make it biomedical waste. India does not have a standard disposal method for menstrual waste, so menstrual waste is disposed of along with the solid waste. This means that the waste has to be segregated from the rest of the solid waste.
This segregation rarely happens at home, leaving sanitation workers to do the job manually. This means that they are exposed to biomedical waste that we generated and conveniently disposed of.
So Who Picks Up After Us?
Of the 1.2 million manual scavengers in India, about 95% to 98% of them are women according to a report by the Economic and Political Weekly. The feminization of the job is because employees often take advantage of the vulnerability, and the disadvantage women face in a patriarchal society- the minimal access to power. It is also no secret that manual scavenging jobs are done by Dalit women and women from marginalized communities. They get paid extremely low. They also are not given other jobs in institutions or workplaces because of caste and gender discrimination.
In my school, the sanitation workers would often complain to teachers about the disposal of disposable sanitary pads in the bathrooms. Many menstruators would dispose of the pads directly in the dustbins or flush them down the toilets.
These were not wrapped or put into a bag before disposal. This meant that the workers had to often manually pick them out to segregate it from the rest of the waste. If the pots were clogged because of flushing pads, they had to unclog them, having to at times pick out pads from a toilet. Most of us ourselves feel dirty or disgusted with our own blood. The plight of the workers, therefore is unimaginable.
Health Risks And Stigma
The documentary Kakkoos directed by activist Divya Bharathi covers various aspects of manual scavenging ranging from intersections between caste and gender in manual scavenging work in India and the health risks workers face with little to no aid by the government.
“The acid makes my throat and uterus hurt. We are unable to pass urine at times,” says a woman manual scavenger in the documentary as she explains the plight of several other women who work with her. Many of these women expose themselves to human and biomedical waste. A waste that we create and look away from. All this without any safety gear.
“I do not eat on days I clean household garbage,” says a woman manual scavenger in the documentary while talking about segregating disposable sanitary napkins from household waste. Another worker says, “My child will not take food from my hands.”
The Prohibition of Employment does not cover manual segregation of menstrual waste as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. The documentary shows heart-wrenching visuals of manual segregation of this waste by women as the narrator says,
“Cleaning the toilet is the main job for women. Because that is the lowest grade job in scavenging. Nobody talks about clearing the napkins. It’s even worse than cleaning the shit. It stinks worse than direct shit. They do not give them any safety tools, and the 2013 Act does not consider their work under manual scavenging.”
Litter Piles
One common disposal method I witnessed growing up was litter piles. Most sanitary pad varieties used are made of cellulose, super absorbent polymers (SAP), plastic covering, and adhesives/glue; many of these components do not decompose easily and remain in the environment (polluting soil and water sources).
These piles would thus contain menstrual waste in the open. Dogs and other animals would often tear these, littering the surroundings, and since they would use their teeth to tear the pads, expose themselves to pathogens and infections. Chewing waste can also choke them.
I grew up in Dehradun, where waste segregation is still not practised. According to a Hindustan Times report of 2018, 21% of wards in Uttarakhand still do not have a 100% door-to-door collection of solid waste, and the state is among the worst in waste processing. Disposal of menstrual waste disposal in the city therefore becomes a matter of even greater concern with many people still dumping their waste into piles in their surroundings.
Menstrual waste is our bodily waste. Then why should it have to be cleaned or segregated by one community or gender? These are questions we must ask ourselves every time we throw away a pad unwrapped or flush it down the toilet.
The Red Dot campaign launched in Pune in 2018 can be adopted to help sanitation workers to identify menstrual waste. The bag or wrapping containing menstrual waste needs to be marked with a red dot to help a worker recognize what the waste contains. Waste disposal does not end at dustbins and landfills. It ends at the adoption of an informed and safe disposal method. The responsibility to make choices that do not lead to waste generation or lead to minimal generation is on all individuals, including non-menstruators. How often will you think about the way you dispose of your menstrual waste now?
The author is a part of the current batch of the #PeriodParGyan Writer’s Training Program