Menstrual health awareness poor in govt schools
MUMBAI: It happens to all of them, but only one in two girl students in government-run schools know about menstruation before their first period. And once it happens, their academic experience changes drastically. From absenteeism to hygiene issues, menstruation adds a host of challenges to girls’ school life.
“The major issue is that menstruation is always treated as women’s issue. We have to understand it’s everybody’s business and everybody should talk about it. Only then will we be able to come up with feasible solutions for menstrual hygiene,” said Dr M Sivakami, professor at the Centre for Health and Social Sciences at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai.
Dr Sivakami is the main author of a study that covered over 2,500 girls in the 12-14 years’ age group, across 43 schools in Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Tamil Nadu.
Aimed at understanding how lack of information on the female reproductive cycle affected attendance and academic performance of girl students, the study
THE STUDY COVERED 2,500 GIRLS AGED 12-14 YEARS, IN 43 SCHOOLS IN MAHARASHTRA, CHATTISGARH AND TN
looked at randomly-selected government schools from the three states and compared the findings to data from 10 ‘model’ schools supported by non-governmental organisations or with a focused menstrual hygiene education programme supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The study was funded by UNICEF.
According to the findings, 56% (492) of girls from model schools were informed about menstruation before menarche (the first period) as compared to 36% (2,564) in government-run schools. Mothers were the most common source of information (67.9%) while on an average, only 8.9% found out about menstruation from teachers.
Menstruation was not only shown to impact absenteeism (10%), but also affected the quality of school time, with close to half (44.5%) of the girls complaining of an inability to concentrate when in school, and more than a third complaining of pain (36%) and worry of staining clothes.
“Most of the times, the parents or friends could themselves be less equipped to educate adolescent girls about menstruation, and in such scenarios, a role of a teacher becomes important. Hence now, we have asked all our members to adopt a school and conduct sessions with teachers and students to educate them about menstruation and hormonal changes in the body,” said Dr Jaideep Malhotra, president of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Society of India (FOGSI), a body of over 36,000 gynecologists and obstetricians in India.
Researchers also found schools did not have enough toilets or facilities for menstruation hygiene.
In Maharashtra, only 27% reported that their schools had disposal facilities for menstrual waste and 33% of the girls from government schools felt there were enough toilets. Most girls (41%) in the state said they took their soiled items home, with burn pits (20%), rubbish pits (17%), or bins (16%) being common methods of disposal. “While it’s welcome that a number of government policies are framed to expand the reach of sanitary napkins and other material to adolescent girls, it’s also essential to come up with policies for the waste disposal and control quality and cost of the products made available to them,” said Dr Sivakami.
Dr Y S Nananwar, former head of gynaecology department at Sion’s Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital said girls must be educated about menstrual hygiene. “It doesn’t matter what material girls are using during menstruation, but they have to ensure its cleaned and dried properly before being re-used since menstrual blood can be a source of bacteria. Moreover, along with disposal facilities, the officials also have to ensure that the quality of pads is maintained to prevent further infection control,” said Dr Nandanwar.
The findings of the study, authored by researchers from TISS, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Liverpool, UK, United Nations Children’s Fund, India and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) India and USA, was recently published in a medical journal.