The topic of menstrual periods is fraught with misinformation, social stigma and superstitions, especially concerning Indian society. Period blood is culturally deemed inherently “impure” and “shameful”, even when it results from natural bodily processes and a sign of a healthy body.
This “taboo” nature of menstrual periods is instilled within young girls as soon as they start menstruating, which they pass on to their children, creating a cycle of shame and silence.
The effect of lack of menstrual hygiene is further exacerbated when we consider the intersectionality of poverty, caste, religion and gender. This intersectionality lends itself to lack of access to menstrual products to manage periods, lack of awareness about menstrual hygiene, increased chances of contracting reproductive diseases, etc.
Especially in the context of poverty, we see that the lack of access to menstrual products affects the physical and mental well-being of the menstruators and their social development. Here, we attempt to understand period poverty and its impact on Indian society.
What Is Period Poverty?
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), period poverty has been described as “the struggle many low-income women and girls face while trying to afford menstrual products”. It also refers to the “increased economic vulnerability” they face due to the cost of access to menstrual supplies.
On average, an Indian woman needs around ₹300 to buy the required supplies during every period cycle. However, in a country like India, where approximately 70.62 million people live on less than $2 a day, it becomes a struggle between opting for necessities for survival or menstrual products.
It is no surprise that most menstruators in India do not have access to menstrual products or even toilets. According to a study, 63 million adolescent menstruators do not have a toilet in their homes.
According to the 2015–16 National Family Health Survey, out of the 336 million menstruators in India, only about 121 million (which translates to around 36%) use locally or commercially produced sanitary napkins.
Menstruators are often forced to use alternate measures like dirty rags, newspapers, hay, grass, ash, etc. Difficulty affording proper menstrual products and facilities leads to various physical, mental and social consequences. Lack of adequate facilities to manage their menstrual hygiene contributes to around 70% of reproductive diseases amongst menstruators, such as infectious urogenital diseases.
According to a study conducted by a charity, Dasra, 23 million girls drop out of school annually after starting their menstrual cycles. Even for those who stay in school, it is estimated that around 40% of the students end up missing school due to inaccessibility. This stunts not only their education but also their future job prospects or chances of independence.
Period Poverty And Menstrual Awareness
Poverty and lack of menstrual awareness are closely related. It is not to say that lack of menstrual awareness and menstruation-related taboos are not a problem for those menstruators who are economically independent and well-off. Still, the effects are much worse for those who hail from lower economic classes.
Not only do they have no or limited access to menstrual products, but they often are in social conditions that promote the idea that periods are something shameful and should be kept quiet. As a result, many girls do not even know about periods before getting theirs.
Also, with the amount of shame associated with periods, girls are often reliant on their mothers or other close females for any information about periods. Thus, most of them remain ignorant of the severe health effects that traditionally used methods of menstrual hygiene, such as rags or hay, might have.
They also lack access to dedicated healthcare and resources to handle any illnesses that might arise out of it.
In some extreme cases, the lack of knowledge about female reproductive health has severely impacted menstruators’ lives. For example, in a case in Maharashtra, thousands of women went through unnecessary hysterectomies over the years to work as sugarcane harvesters, as missing even a single workday required them to pay penalties they could not afford.
Due to lack of sanitation facilities and poor hygienic conditions, women of the area caught infections frequently, upon which doctors from the area recommended unnecessary hysterectomies to them.
Furthermore, the impact of the social taboos and lack of information on the mental and social aspects of a woman’s life are also severe.
The isolation and the discrimination that menstruators face for being “impure” for 5–6 days per month for a completely natural body function also instils an idea of inferiority and weakness in their psyche.
Their social life is controlled by something that is not under their control, dictating where they can go, what they can touch and with whom they can interact. This highlights the need for menstrual awareness — to prevent the growth of a perpetual cycle of shame, isolation and discrimination over a normal biological function.
Measures Needed To Address Period Poverty
Both governmental and non-governmental organisations have addressed the issues arising from period poverty through various measures. For example, the government instituted the “Swachh Bharat: Swachh Vidyalaya” campaign to promote the building of proper sanitation facilities and means for proper disposal of menstrual products.
Another example would be various public awareness campaigns run by governmental and non-governmental organisations, especially amongst educators, adolescents and young adults. There have also been many campaigns aimed at providing proper disposal facilities for menstrual products and providing sanitary napkins at reduced or no cost.
On the other hand, some organisations are improving awareness and access to sustainable sanitary pad alternatives such as reusable pads and menstrual cups, especially amongst the underprivileged sections of society.
A rising social movement urges menstruators to express their experience and reject society’s false taboos attached to menstruation.
One such organisation is that by Sacchi Saheli, who have come up with various initiatives on both physical and online platforms. Period Fest and PadYatra are two major physical campaigns organised by them.
The period fest is a festival to address the silence and stigma around periods through various forms of discussion and dialogue. At the same time, PadYatra is an awareness march to express people’s feelings against the stigmatisation of menstruation.
The NGO has also chosen to celebrate the 5 February every year as the Menstrual Health and Awareness Day, to celebrate periods and their experiences, instead of stigmatisation.
The organisation also runs online campaigns such as #abpatachalnedo and #MHAD to create acceptance and reduce stigma against menstruation and create awareness about the various types of menstrual management products and their use.
They have also undertaken various projects like Project Saral and Project Umeed under which they have created menstrual health awareness at the grassroots level, as well as provided menstrual aids, such as incinerators and sanitary pads to those in need.
Period poverty is a significant health concern, especially in a country like India, where a large part of the population survives on less than the bare minimum resources. The effects of period poverty are limited to the physical, mental and social well-being of those who are presently affected and extends its impact to the future generation.
As it has been observed, while there have been many campaigns and public awareness programmes, their effect remains limited to a certain extent. Therefore, to truly fight the burden of period poverty, most educated menstruators must take it up as their responsibility to promote menstrual awareness.
Suppose the educated milieu becomes more open, accepts periods as a biological function and perpetuates the idea amongst themselves and the next generation. In that case, we could create a much larger support and awareness system for those who lack one.
This cannot be achieved by one section of society alone. It is necessary that everyone, irrespective of their gender, is educated about periods and is open to promoting free dialogue. That would be the first step towards eradicating period poverty.