Imagine reaching college after a tedious metro ride followed by a short yet uncomfortable journey on a bouncy rickshaw that left your stomach-churning. After this daily battle, all you want now is to go to the washroom, run a comb through your messy hair and freshen yourself before another battle begins. But instead, you are welcomed with a site of filthy clogged washrooms with no running water!
Or maybe it’s the time when you unexpectedly get your period in the middle of the day and rush to the washroom to grab a sanitary pad from the vending machine but what you find is an empty box or even worse- your college doesn’t even have a vending machine!
I am sure you are not unfamiliar with the situation, nor am I. Other than our love for chai and democracy, one more thing that binds us all together is our washroom horror stories. Delhi University has a strength of over 9000+ students across its 91 colleges. While most of us come from diverse backgrounds, our daily struggles are more or less the same.
One of them is the issue of poor maintenance of college washrooms, lack of regular water supply, poor cleanliness and absence or malfunctioning of sanitary pad dispensers and incinerators. In the MHRD Swachhta Ranking of 2018, one of the most prestigious institutes of the country Delhi University failed to hold any place. It says a lot about the current situation of the university toilets.
The situation is much more problematic for the university’s trans crowd with its lack of recognition and facilities for the trans community.
The fact that I chose Delhi University as my intervention area for the campaign says enough about the sanitation facilities of the university. From missing soaps to empty sanitary pad vending machines or absence of water, menstruators have seen it all!
The lack of sanitation facilities is more than just an infrastructural flaw. It causes a sense of discomfort, inconvenience and embarrassment among the menstruators along with increased chances of exposure to various reproductive diseases and infections. Access to clean and hygienic washrooms is not just another infrastructural requirement but also a basic necessity.
My MHM campaign in collaboration with Youth Ki Awaaz will work to bridge the gap between the menstruators and authorities. The campaign ‘DU Bleeds’ asks for menstruation friendly washrooms throughout the university and encourages dialogue on that subject. The overall lack of MHM facilities is not just a challenge faced by DU but our country runs on similar lines. To give you an idea of how grave the situation is here are some facts–
- 85% of girls reported not having access to proper facilities during menstruation, leading to bad hygiene and infection.
- 66% of girls do not have access to private or functioning toilets in school. In the absence of these, girls often miss school altogether.
- Out of 87.5 million adolescent girls in India currently attending school, 30% of these girls are at risk of dropping out due to lack of facilities required to manage menstruation at school.
While these statistics are limited to schools, I cannot emphasize enough that girls in college face similar problems. We end up missing college on days of bleeding or are unable to move from one place to another in the campus due to fear of staining. If only people understood that we need to manage menstruation not only hygienically but also with confidence and dignity. Accessible sanitary products, pain relief, and adequate sanitary facilities at colleges would improve our college-experience and help us reach our full potential. Perhaps, only then gender equality will be achieved.
The university has no policy or programming frameworks to improve knowledge and infrastructure to manage menstrual hygiene. Expecting budget support for menstrual hygiene sounds far-fetched given the existing attitude. It’s high time that the university pays heed to our problems. Students deserve access to clean, hygienic and menstruation friendly washrooms.
You can support the campaign through
Instagram: https://instagram.com/du_bleeds?igshid=jo4io064oije
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BleedsDu?s=08
If you are a Delhi University student then please do help by filling the survey.
Link- https://forms.gle/RR2RBzebNCEC8pRW7
Take part in ‘Periods in DU Campaign’ and share your story.
Link- https://forms.gle/epo74paWoiFGh81R9
*Featured images are for representational purposes only.