There is a serious need for us to look at the policies surrounding menstruation and its allied issues from a gender-neutral lens. In India, even though there are a few menstrual health policies in place, they do not take into account that there are menstruators apart from women and adolescent girls. The fact that transgender and gender nonconforming people menstruate too is often overlooked and is missing from the mainstream discourse.
While the Supreme Court in 2014 recognised transgender as the third gender and gave directions to provide them with basic public amenities such as public washrooms in community spaces, hardly any state has implemented the same so far. Delhi has been the only state to include transgender in the policy scheme of building public washrooms.
However, it is important to highlight that when it comes to various schemes and policies around menstruation, our policymakers have missed the gender-neutral aspect. For instance, the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan Scheme was modified in 2013 to include components of menstrual hygiene such as clean and safe community spaces tor menstruating women and girls, and the inclusion of incinerator in the government schools.
Similarly, there are various other policy schemes by various Ministries of India. For instance, the Ministry of Women and Child Development had introduced a scheme called the Sabla, which focused on providing awareness around menstrual health management for adolescent girls through Anganwadi centres, and empowering women by improving their health and nutrition. The Ministry of Human Resource Development had introduced a scheme called the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that focused on improving school attendance rates by providing necessary infrastructure in schools such as public washrooms for girls, installation of incinerators for menstrual waste management etc.
However, the problem with these policies is that there is a gap between policy implementation or formulation and service delivery. This is why most of the MHM policies exist only on paper and have not turned into reality. For instance, over 21,000 government schools in India do not have girls’ washrooms even today. At least 23% of the girls drop out of their schools when they hit puberty due to the absence of washrooms in their schools. Adolescent girls in India miss at least 20% of their school year because of lack of access to period products and also clean washrooms in community spaces.
Most importantly, what these policies don’t take into account is that not all menstruators are women and girls. There are practically no policies for menstruating transgender and gender nonconforming people, which further worsens the situation for them as they are the ones who are severely affected by the issue of period poverty. As it is, they are discriminated against and on top of that, if they menstruate, they are subjected to various social stigmas and not taken into consideration when menstrual health policies are formed.
Even in recent times, when the government launched the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, under which all women and girls would be provided sanitary pads at a subsidised rate of Re 1, transgender and gender noncomforing people were missing from the policy discussion. These gaps need to be addressed and there is a serious need for policies to be more sensitive and inclusive to make menstruation a non issue.
Menstrual schemes should focus on transgender and gender conforming people, too, thereby making period products accessible to them as well at subsidised rates. Public amenities such as washrooms and period rooms (a private space for menstruators) should be expanded for all menstruators. Not only should the number of public washrooms be increased, but also they should be well-maintained and inclusive for all, thereby making them period-friendly and gender-neutral.
By period friendly, we mean that all the washrooms should have pad vending machines, proper lighting, water supply, dustbins and proper locks in the washrooms to ensure safety and privacy. And by gender-neutral, we mean that washrooms should be accessible to transgender and gender nonconforming people, too, as they are generally discriminated against when they try to use the generic existing washrooms.
Another aspect that should be looked into is providing menstrual education to all school children irrespective of their gender because it is important for everyone to be aware about the gender neutral aspect of menstruation in order to treat it as a normal biological cycle and not as a label or a woman’s identity. Hence, there is a serious need for people to understand that menstruation isn’t a symbol of womanhood and everyone has the equal right to access period products and the basic right to sanitation irrespective of their gender.
If you, too, believe that there is a serious need to make our menstrual policies inclusive, then kindly sign the petition so that these concerns can reach the decision makers.