Menstruation being a signal of a woman’s health and fertility, unfortunately all over the world this natural biological process is surrounded by shame, secrecy, embarrassment, fear, humiliation, silence and stigma, due to our socio-cultural restrictions and mindset.
Menstruating women and girls are isolated into separate huts or cowsheds. Other restrictions menstruating girls and women face include not being allowed to prepare food, wash their bodies, or enter places of worship. Many think that they should not touch anything during menstruation, as they are not pure.
Obviously, when there is so much ignorance and so many taboos about menstruation, menstrual hygiene is highly affected. Despite women making up half of the population, their menstrual hygiene requirements are overlooked and neglected, sometimes even deliberately ignored, which has an adverse health outcome.
This low priority and lack of attention at all levels has devastating impacts on women’s and girls’ lives. It prevents women from reaching their full potential and achieving gender equality. Women and girls lose days of school and work with far-reaching implications for their education, well-being, and livelihoods. They are subjected to cultural prescriptions that sometime amount to harmful practices and severely curtail their freedom and mobility.
A study by WaterAid India (though with a little sample size) revealed that 63 per cent adolescent girls were completely ignorant about menstruation before they attain menarche. Only 37 percent adolescent girls knew about menarche. It is observed that most of the girls knew about menarche through their friends. This shows that it is still a taboo to talk about menstruation and many a time, families discourage discussions. This is compounded by ignorance of the mothers. The study further revealed that 1 out of 3 girls knew nothing about menstruation prior to getting it while 23 per cent of adolescent girls in the age-group 12-18 drop out of school after they begin menstruating because of inadequate menstrual protection like sanitary napkins and toilet. Those who are in school remain absent for an average of five days a month.
Hygiene related practices of women during menstruation is one of the important parts of whole hygiene practices, as it has a health impact in terms of increased vulnerability of reproductive tract infection (RTI). Yet, in many cultures, it is treated as something negative, shameful or dirty. The continued silence around menstruation combined with limited access to information at home and in schools results in millions of women and girls having very little knowledge about what is happening to their bodies when they menstruate and how to deal with it.
Increased knowledge about menstruation and menstrual hygiene may help in mitigating the suffering of women to a large extent. Bringing to light the ways menstrual hygiene impacts education, health, the economy, the environment and human rights is the need of the hour. But, to ensure the above stated status, it is absolutely essential to break the myths, stigma and taboos compounded with socio cultural practices in regard to menstruation across the corner. And for this, it is rather more essential to breaking the silence around menstruation and menstrual hygiene and start discussing about the issue. Because there is no shame in menstruation, let us start discussion. Our concerted effort can create a world in which every woman and girl can manage her menstruation hygienically, in privacy, in safety and with dignity, where ever she is.
(The author is working with WaterAid India, Bhubaneswar)
