This post won the 2024 Laadli Media & Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity.
Back in 2007, I was figuring out how to handle my life’s second menstrual cycle. Anxious about my skirt getting stained and the fear of someone noticing, I sat on the last bench in the classroom. After a couple of hours when the class ended, I didn’t realize my skirt was already stained until my friend loudly pointed it out. My face turned red with embarrassment, as if period stains weren’t enough.
I rushed toward the classroom door to go to the restroom, but the teacher stopped me. She didn’t say anything but looked at me with disgust and asked me to leave through the backdoor. After changing my pad, I hesitated to leave the toilet. I was still learning how to dispose properly. Taking the used pad out would mean letting the other girls know that I was on my period. So, I quickly stuffed it in my bag and ran home.
Well, that was sixteen years ago. Much to my dismay, the situation is the same in 2023. In February, a survey was conducted by the Green Pencil Foundation as part of an awareness campaign on menstrual hygiene in a Mumbai government school. It revealed that out of 100 girls, 39 did not know how to use sanitary pads and 51.8% of the students were unable to openly discuss periods with their family, friends and teachers due to the long-standing taboo associated with the topic.
We can’t even begin to tackle these awareness problems if we don’t have something as basic as separate toilets for girls. But what’s even more infuriating is how the Maharashtra government and the education department seem completely apathetic to the fundamental rights of half the state’s population.
(Un)friendly menstrual environment in Maharashtra’s govt. schools
A separate (functional) toilet. Access to (clean) water. Provision of (affordable) sanitary pads. This is all it takes to build a ‘menstrual-friendly environment’ in government schools. So, why does it feel like such an uphill task?
The specified norm for the toilet-to-girl student ratio for government schools is 1:40, according to the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya guidelines. Ironically, as per the Unified District Information System for Education (U-DISE) 2017-18 data, more than 1647 government and zilla parishad schools in Maharashtra do not have separate toilets for girls. No gender-segregated toilets would mean that the ratio of students would be twice the prescribed number as per the guidelines. Thus, for every 1 toilet, there would be approximately 80 student users, inclusive of male and female students.
In the fiscal year 2022-23, the Maharashtra government’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme had plans to build over 787 girls’ toilets in government schools. However, according to the latest update from the central government, not a single toilet has been fully constructed so far.
Tokenistic provision of sanitary pads
Instead of prioritizing functional and usable toilets for girls, the state government’s main focus has been on introducing schemes for sanitary pads. But how can sanitary pads be the solution when there are no toilets for girls in the first place? In 2018, the Maharashtra government launched the Asmita Yojana, a scheme to provide sanitary napkins to government school girls at subsidized rates. Since then there have been multiple complaints of the napkins being of poor and unusable quality.
But the highlights of the majority of media reports have been celebrating the sales of these pads. In 2020, the state government claimed to have sold more than 1.6 crore sanitary pads at highly subsidised rates to adolescent girls studying in zilla parishad schools as well as rural women across the state since the launch of yojana in 2018. How much was sold to the rural women and how much to the school girls continues to remain as unclear as the effectiveness of those poor-quality pads?
It is evident that the mere distribution of sanitary pads is not an effective solution, otherwise, 23 million menstruating school girls wouldn’t be quitting their education every year in India. According to a recent report, a meta-analysis of 138 studies, encompassing 97,070 girls nationwide, has revealed that 1 in 4 girls aged 10-19 skip school during their periods.
Rakshita Manglani, social activist and city head (Mumbai) at Green Pencil Foundation recollects an ironic experience while she was conducting a menstrual health and hygiene awareness session at a government school in Dharavi earlier this year. She says, “I had an early morning session at the school and it was the first day of my periods. I wanted to change my pad. So, after the session, I asked the kids to show me the way to the toilet. It was shocking to see that the door did not have a latch. The floor was dirty. Several used sanitary pads were lying open. The flush was broken. Handwash was missing. I had no option otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed for a minute inside that toilet. Is it not absolutely harrowing for young girls going through their first menstrual cycle to endure such a situation?
No dearth of funds but can’t say the same for political will
Government schools in Maharashtra receive funds to build new infrastructure and maintain the existing one through both the central and the state governments. The management at the ground level comes under the Department of Education and is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping a tab on the rightful usage of the funds once disbursed. In the SSA schemes, for example, the centre bears 60% of expenses, and the rest are contributed by the state government.
The government data shows that a staggering Rs. 79 crore was sanctioned by the Centre in 2021-22 under the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme across 19 states. In contrast, in the last three financial years from 2017-18 to 2019-20, less than half of the funds allocated for sanitary napkin procurement were not spent at all the same data shows.
In fact, according to the parliamentary question 4123 answered in 2021, Maharashtra utilised only 29.6% of the total funds that were allocated for procuring sanitary napkins. What happened to the rest of the funds?
The education department had been asked to instruct schools to maintain the girls’ toilets in schools via a 10 per cent composite school grant meant for Swachchata Action Plan or through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) back in 2019. However contradictory it may sound; it has been repeatedly stalled due to the ‘lack of funds’ as cited by the government.
Repeated warnings from the courts seem to fall on deaf ears.
In 2021, during the lockdown, 28-year-old Nikita Gore was working as a law clerk at Bombay High Court’s bench in Aurangabad. One day while heading home, she experienced period cramps. Gore began noticing daily wage earners walking home due to the unavailability of public transport.
She recalls, “I tried to strike up a conversation with a lady who was carrying a big luggage in one hand and a baby on the other.” She offered her assistance, including providing sanitary pads, to which the lady was hesitant. “Only when I spoke to her I realise that she didn’t even know what a sanitary pad looked like, forget using one!”, says Gore. The incident opened Gore’s eyes to her own privilege of being able to change or wash her pads at her convenience, with access to water and a clean washroom.
She filed the PIL in the Bombay High Court seeking recognition of sanitary napkins as essential items exempt from taxes, as well as the implementation of the National Guidelines for Menstrual Hygiene Management.
After the PIL was filed, the court took suo-moto cognisance of the matter due to the inaction of the state government. It is crucial to note the questions rightfully asked by the court in 2022 and 2023 reprimanding the state government for their inactions. The court in its 2022 session had exclaimed, “…Is the state government powerless to frame a policy? Are you waiting for any auspicious day to do this?”.
A detailed survey report was prepared and submitted to the court by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) along with Gore and Adv Vinod Sangvikar who had initially filed the PIL. They conducted surprise visits to several Zilla Parishad and BMC schools and submitted the report to the court. When the court did not get a satisfactory response even after a year, it chided the government once again earlier this month and said, “Something which is expected from you is being done by the Principal District Judge (PDJ)!”
Except Maharashtra govt, all eyes on the draft National Menstrual Hygiene Policy 2023
Post-independence, the first-ever guideline that acknowledged the importance of menstrual health facilities for half of India’s population, the women, was the National Guidelines on Menstrual Hygiene Management released by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2015.
The very first guideline for state governments was to recognise sanitary napkins as an essential commodity. India does not levy the ‘pink tax’ anymore and the same goes for GST on the sale of the pads. But GST is levied on the raw materials used in the making of the pads. So, in the end, they continue to remain expensive for the majority of the population. Gore points out, “Menstruators are not bleeding out of choice every month. Menstrual hygiene facilities are a necessity of the state’s half population, not a lifestyle choice. If a BPL family has four menstruating women, will they not be pushed to make the choice to discontinue the education of the younger one?”
The Supreme Court had warned the state governments and the union territories to submit their state-level menstrual hygiene policy before August 31. The Maharashtra government has yet to submit its policy in spite of repeated reminders. Once implemented, the uniform policy will ensure government, government-aided and residential schools provide adolescent students with free sanitary napkins and also provision of separate schools should be equipped with separate washrooms for girl students.
Let’s be real
Distributing pads is just scratching the surface. Pads aren’t condoms; installing vending machines won’t magically erase the taboos surrounding periods. Even with condoms, the idea failed miserably. True change starts when basics are met. We are talking about creating a safe and healthy space for people who menstruate. Pads are just one piece of the puzzle. What is the government’s point of splurging on them if they are failing to provide basic functional toilets for girls to use them? Offering low-quality pads at a ‘subsidized rate’ is as dishonest as the big pad companies claiming to sell top-quality pads while stacking on the tax.
It has come down to a point where courts are appointing judges to inspect toilets in Maharashtra. Law students are filing PIL to win dignity for young menstruating women who are stripped of their basic rights. Social activists are traversing to the remote villages to break the stigma around period hygiene. And the Maharashtra government?
This story has been written as part of the My City Writers’ Training Program.