By Mehak Koul
Scared and anxious, Meenakshi was 12 when she first got her period. Having no idea about what menstruation is, she didn’t understand what was happening to her body. But her mother calmed her down and handed her a cloth to use. With her first period came certain restrictions. Her mom no longer wanted Meenkashi to attend school anymore.
This is the story of almost 1 in every 4 adolescent girls in India, who has to quit school when she hits puberty. Women and girls constitute half of India’s population yet gender disparities remain a critical issue impacting female education, health and workforce participation.
The stigma that the system has enforced for years now has disguised a necessity as a privilege. Even today 70% of women in India say their family cannot afford to buy sanitary pads and often have to use alternatives like pieces of rags, ash, sand and husk. Almost 70 % of reproductive diseases in India are the result of poor menstrual hygiene.
The tax on the sanitary pads in India, was earlier set at 12% which later was removed under the goods and services act in 2018. It was argued that it would enable more girls to continue their schooling as periods become one of the main reasons for girls to drop out of school.
Even after the 12% was removed, a pack of 10 pads that used to cost an average of 100 rupees, would now cost 88 rupees, which is still more than a low income family’s daily wages. So even today on one hand, we have a class which can afford this necessity and on the other we have the class which fails to afford this so-called “privilege”.
Means to menstrual hygiene is a right, not a privilege. Naata Foundation has always worked to remove these social stigmas surrounding menstrual hygiene and help the community of Aarey Colony.
After realising the problem these tribal families faced, the organisation realised how affording sanitary napkins might not be feasible for everyone in these tribal families. Naata Foundation started providing a yearly supply of sanitary pads to 4 schools comprising more than 2000 girls and all the women in the villages. The organisation started by conducting webinars and counselling sessions by WHO and Red Cross to teach kids about personal health and hygiene, primarily focusing on how important sanitation is. The women were taught how to dispose of these sanitary pads properly without harming the environment, but disposing was still a problem. A single sanitary pad can take more than 500 to 800 years to decompose because of the non biodegradable plastic used in making it, which can lead to environmental and health hazards. Disposal of such plastic pads had become a huge concern and Naata wanted to make make changes here.
Therefore, washable napkins (approved by WHO) were brought to the rescue. Since 2019, the organisation is able to reach out to all the tribal women and girls from Aarey Colony and provides them with 12 packets of washable napkins each for the entire year. The organisation also conducted classes on how to keep these napkins clean and reuse them to maintain personal hygiene.
According to UNICEF 71% of girls in India till date remain unaware of menstruation till menarche, feminine hygiene goods still remain out of reach for a vast majority of India's women but we are learning and growing with one community at a time.
Join us in making a difference at Naata Foundation.
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