Breaking the silence: Tackling Period Poverty with Dignity and Equality

photographed by Niraj Gera

What is period? a cycle or you can say a natural process but why there is so much stigma around it and why does this poverty exist around it. People who menstruate are always excluded from basic activities like socializing and eating for e.g. eating pickle is prohibited while you are menstruating, the shame attached to menstruation and because of that shortage of resources stop women from going to school and working every day, this Period Poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities or waste management. "Meeting the hygiene needs of all adolescent girls is a fundamental issue of human rights, dignity and public health" Sanjay Wijesekera , former UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, said.

Additionally, more than 1.5 billion people still lack basic sanitation services, such as private toilets. Not having access to safely managed toilets keeps many girls away from school and women away from work during their period. Stigma and discrimination are heightened in communities where there are harmful social and cultural norms around period. In some parts of the world, even today, menstruating girls and women are seen as dirty and untouchable, restricting their movement and access to spaces. Pervasive myths include that menstruating women and girls should not touch certain food, or it would rot, or enter places of worship and that they should isolated 

While for some people the choice between menstrual cups, tampons, and pads is an everyday conversation, the majority of the people in India neither have the means nor the luxury to pick and choose. The most commonly available sanitary product – pads, are not monetarily feasible for most menstruators. Let alone tampons and menstrual cups, which are largely available in urban cities. below is the map for percentage of woman using period poverty items in different regions

Be it high prices of sanitary products, lack of awareness about their usage, or the normalisation of silence around menstruation and its cultural ignorance as a “women’s problem”—these are some of the many reasons that have worsened period poverty in India. The problem of period poverty is threefold: lack of awareness, acceptance, and access.

One of the first and most significant causes of period poverty are the taboos, stigmas, and stereotypes around menstruation. Every conversation around menstruation is a hushed one and the silence around the issue has been normalised to an extent that people are shamed if they do otherwise. This in turn just makes the already existing issues, worse. The second and very important cause is the extremely poor hygiene standards. For many in rural India, menstrual hygiene is non-existent. Scarcity of water, lack of menstrual products, and proper toilets make matters difficult. According to official data, of the 10.83 lakh government schools in the country, 15000 have no toilets. This lack of sanitation facilities is glaring and worsens the situation for so many young menstruators. 

illustration by Shreya Tingle for Feminism India

This brings us to our next point which is the lack of awareness and knowledge about menstruation. A study has found that 71% of girls in India report having no knowledge of menstruation before their first period. This unpreparedness leads to shock, fear, frustration at the situation and anxiety. And that often results in school dropouts.

In the conversation around period poverty, it is also important to acknowledge that not all menstruators are women and not all women menstruate. There is a need to engage in discussions that are beyond the gender binary and consider all aspects and needs of menstruators. There is a need to construct a movement devoid of exclusion of any vulnerable group. There needs to be real measurable change by those in power and must be a collaborative effort to dismantle the stigma and make resources available.