Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Water & Sanitation Period poverty and stigma

15 replies, 15 voices Last updated by Aditi Sahu 2 years, 7 months ago
  • Woospire
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    @admin
    #30660

    Today 500 million women and girls globally are estimated to lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management. This puts women and their families at greater risk of infection. We must continue to speak up for the human right to manage periods safely and in dignity, and promote safe sanitation at all times.

    Darshini Suresh
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    @darshinisuresh
    #30664
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    Everyone should try to understand that menstruation is correlated with the onset of puberty in women and girls. A women’s menstrual health is very momentous for her well-being as well as her family. Despite such belief and facts, a woman even in today’s developing world prevents her from getting the menstrual health and support for care they need due to some customs, and mind-sets of certain people. Today, periods’ poverty is considered amongst the most challenging development issues in the world.
    According to the recent reports it’s stated that, 1 out of every 4 women in a year suffer from period poverty by not being able to pay for her basic menstrual needs, and still use a cloth. Only less than 18 to 19 percent of Indian Women actually use a sanitary pad every month. Let me make it clear that a changed attitude towards women having restrictions related to Self-expression, mobility and freedom does have a far-reaching impact on the mind-set of a woman. When a mother talks about this topic with their daughters in private, they lack the scientific knowledge on even basic puberty and menstrual hygiene. There is no doubt that in India there is a greater attention now towards menstrual hygiene, but Today, it’s clearly a global issue. Lack of Sufficient and basic information on sanitation and menstrual hygiene, mostly in schools or health centers can impact having a major obstacle to woman and girls.
    Even today, many girls are restricted from doing so many things while they are ok their period, as it is still perceived as an unclean or embarrassing thing which should be hidden from the world as well as inside their house in front of the males. They call it impure-blood. They feel shy enough to go even to a medical to buy sanitary pads because of this belief put into them by their family from the start itself. An estimated about 77 percent of girls leave their Schooling as soon as they enter puberty usage of cloth by not having the economic stability to buy pads. This happens mostly in the underprivileged sectors.
    Menstruation is natural and yet, it’s considered shameful potentially. Stigma maybe worse for a woman of color and underprivileged family women. The government should supply free pads to these women in remote areas, since they are the lost affected by menstrual poverty. Every school should let NGOs and other doctors come in and take seminars to give complete professional knowledge about puberty and menstruation for girls. Girls should also be thought about what is safe to use and how the sanitary pads are to be dispose during menstruation. Knowledge about reusable menstruation cups and tampons should be also given for many women do not know that they even exist. I feel Everyone all over the world can help support women and girls through menstrual health management education, advocacy, and donations. Through proper awareness, meditation programs and motivation there Is a high chance of accomplishing to sort the periods poverty and stigma problem because this well help girls at a young age itself on how you manage menstruation and their knowledge to be enhanced on hygiene.

    shaifalikapoor03
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    @shaifalikapoor03
    #31179
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    Menstruation or period is a normal part of life for almost every women. Still it is stigmatized in many places. Menstruation is another subject to be raised awareness on, everyone be it a man or a woman needs to know that menstruation is a natural and a healthy part of life that has nothing to be hidden for. Menstrual awareness among the people would help in emphasizing on making hygiene products available to those who have no access to them. In india, products related to menstruation are so costly that a poor person has to think thrice before buying them, hence alot of the population is still using unhygienic means during their period, unaware of the consequeal diseases that can even lead to death. Period essentials need not be a luxury to the people, they’re as important as water to a thirsty soul. Hence, luxuriating the products is causing it difficult for the women to maintain their hygiene during menstruation, moreover most women are unaware about usage of such products, creating awareness amongst the people would solve a lot of problems from education about the hygiene to increasing the amount of production that would eventually lead to a low price of these product.

    Vivek Adatia
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    @vivek
    #31232
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    How queer and convenient it is that women can’t just separate themselves from men! Whether it is the word ‘women’ itself or a completely natural yet glaringly stigmatized biological phenomenon which, though exclusive to women, is ironically called ‘menstruation’. Apparently men have nothing to do with this phenomenon, as it is the women who go through considerable discomfort and difficulties for five days each month. And if you are a woman in India, these difficulties and discomforts increase several folds, due to the societal stigma attached to it and the severe lack of awareness about menstrual hygiene. All of this leads to a quite serious problem called period poverty.
    Period poverty is basically a state where women don’t have an easy access to basic hygiene facilities like toilets and affordable sanitary pads. Societal stigma, superstitions and lack of proper education about menstruation add fuel to fire. Women in rural areas take the worst hits due to this. Even after so many decades of the advent of disposable sanitary pads into the market, these women in rural areas have little or no access to them; simply because they are unable to afford them. As a result they resort to the use of dirty clothes and even hay as recorded in many instances. On the top of this, unavailability of such a basic facility as a toilet, makes the situation unbearably embarrassing for them. Ultimately this leads to these women suffering from UTI’s and other such diseases which at times can prove to be fatal.
    Now this problem doesn’t end here. The societal stigma and taboos surrounding menstruation make the lives of these women even more miserable. How can you not scoff at the hypocrisy that on one hand, a menstruating woman is deemed ‘impure’ and on the other, the same woman is celebrated when she is about to give birth to a new life with the aid of that same menstrual fluid? Young girls are forced to miss school for five to six days each month or drop out of the school altogether at puberty in worse instances. Women are practically robbed of their freedom, whether they choose to rest or work during this time and are compelled to duel with the duel edged sword of societal expectations. She cannot enter into the kitchen, yet she needs to be the one who feeds the family. Humans are supposed to be the smartest creatures and yet sometimes there cannot be any creature dumber than humans. All these stigmas were attached to menstruation in the first place in the past as an excuse for women to get some rest and isolate themselves as there were no facilities and aids to manage menstruation hygienically. Religious bends were given to it so that people follow it thoroughly. But these stigmas grew obsolete with time and those religious bends turned into taboos which the so called ‘smart’ man failed to identify and created a problematic situation for the women of the society.
    The only solution to this very serious problem is to create enough awareness through educational programs educating people about menstruation hygiene, making sanitary pads easily accessible to the women of all classes of the society, trying to break the taboos and eliminating the societal stigma that has become obsolete in these times. Only then we will be able to alleviate or eradicate the problem of period poverty from out society.

    simran arora
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    @simran
    #32474
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    We know that some societies still do not allow women to attend schools and colleges when on their period. But the situation is far worse in rural areas or in countries like India, where poverty is high. Both food and sanitary napkin is a necessity, yet women in poverty choose food over period infection.

    Period or menstruation stigma exists even in the modern world. The strains of poverty have made the situations worse for women, as mentioned in the statement. Besides educating the population about poverty stigma, the necessities of the poor have to be ensured by the human rights commission or the governments in power. Also, it would take a lot more than distributing free pads to women worldwide.

    The more the poverty increases, the lesser the hygiene would sustain. Menstruation is a part of a woman’s life as soon as she hits puberty. It does not mean that a woman is dirty. Nor does it means that she should not have a right to sustain herself in society. But as we focus on poverty here, things can be difficult and troublesome.

    Women in poverty may or may not use old cloth during periods. Due to such things, they are more likely to get fungal and vaginal infections, and sadly, they will not get the solution for it. It is also necessary that, along with the girl, boys should also be educated about menstruation. Taking baby steps can still help the human rights commission to complete the dream of removing period poverty and stigma. The only thing is that the duration it would take every ounce of breath to stop this culture and build a new one!

    Manpreet Singh
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    @manpreet
    #32541
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    It is believed that by Improving menstrual health care and management, we can substantially improve the condition of girls’ education in our society. But given the lack of awareness and the sensitivities around the topic, it is found that girls living in a poor society or rural India have been declined basic fundamental rights such as education just due to the problems related to mensural health is the omnipresent stigmatization of menstruation and entrenched social norms in some parts of the world, which limit the adequate support to menstruating persons. Given the potential health, social consequences of ineffective mensural care management, this unequal access will further fuel the existing socio-economic inequalities within society.
    Women and girls who menstruate are basically banned from basic activities like eating certain kinds of foods or socializing. The woman is considered to be ‘impure’ during her periods, so she is expected to live in a harsh environment. This includes sleeping outdoors and more. Due to additional societal norms, women put the needs of the household before themselves. Spending on themselves is still considered a luxury in most of the houses. Many rural women do not get enough menstrual hygiene. It is non-existent for them. The is water scarce in most of the rural part, adding to their troubles. The limited water supply is used for cooking and cleaning, not on themselves. They end up going days without bathing and often reusing unwashed clothes. This is continued during their periods as well. The same dirty rag is reused, leading to UTIs and infections! Another issue is the lack of toilets in villages. It is a basic human need, especially for menstruating women, but it is still a luxury. The effect of such issues is that the girls have to drop out of their schools early and several deaths, that is avoidable, are reported due to the lack of hygiene facilities.
    There are various ways in which we can improve the fragile situation in the poor part of India. We have to make the population more aware of the old stigmas that are no more required in modern times, we have to invest more in the NGOs who can create a support system in the awareness. The government has to know that it has to play a major role in ensuring the basic facilities such as toilets.

    DISHA SAPKALE
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    @42disha
    #32591
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    In today’s generation women menstrual problem is still not a serious topic and many people in our society still think that women who go through menstruation it becomes stigma for their family. Society need to understand it is natural think that every women goes through menstruation. And it should be normalise in our india. Menstrual hygiene is must needed for every women because if women don’t have menstrual hygiene than it becomes problem for them by getting infected with diseases like dermatitis, urinary tract infections (UTIs). Their should proper management of menstrual hygiene for women. While travelling there should have availability of washroom facilities with sanitary pads and washroom at public places should be get sanitize every day. And women who can’t afford sanitary pads they should get free sanitary pads available in market for women who don’t have money. In villages many women don’t know about sanitary pads so they use cloth for menstruation and it is not good for menstrual hygiene but then also women in villages use cloth due to which many get infected and some of them lead to death also. To solve their problems and to decrease the amount of patients who get infected because of use of cloth, they should be aware of sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene knowledge for that government should arrange campaign or facilities for women’s menstrual hygiene in villages. So that Women will get to know about menstrual hygiene and they will start using sanitary pads to not get infected by such diseases. Their are still people who ask women to stay separately while going through menstruation because they think it is unhygienic and stigma for them. Society need to change their thinking and need to take care of women menstrual hygiene. when Society showing inequality and discrimination between men and women like a highlighting news instead of that they should normalise menstruation talking because it is major problem that people still make fun or feel shame to talk about menstruation.

    nehachitroda
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    @nehachitroda
    #32613
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    PERIOD POVERTY AND STIGMA
    Menstruation, Time of the month, Period, Women’s problems, Female troubles, etc., and many more words are used for one specific thing but it’s not about how many words but are used harshly and depicted as offensive and shameful which makes women feel inferior. A study conducted by the International Women’s Health Coalition found that around 5000 slang words are used for the term menstruation in 10 different languages.
    Periods are nothing like offending thing but people look upon this as if it such shameful and then they discriminate among females when they are having periods and the way treat women’s during that time is just a very upsetting part of the whole menstruation phase, still many communities believe in the differentiation of women and make them do all chores separately like not entering the kitchen, live separately for that duration, not allowing to move out of one place, this kind of stigmas are faced by women in many rural areas or in a patriarchal society.
    Period poverty is so common that it affects girls and their life in many ways, including not having proper access to washrooms, not able to afford sanitary pads, skipping schools for that number of days, and then gradually discontinue education. Still, many rural areas don’t have proper water supply, sanitation, medical facilities, and this results in poor health and then it becomes a major problem, for e.g., during periods if women face any problems, then consulting a doctor is suggested but lack of facilities and being poor, they neglect serious things.
    Periods are a topic to be discussed openly because it’s not only about women but it’s for all and gets educated about this thing, whether schools, colleges or workplace. Girls skip schools because of lack of sanitation and hygiene and are the same at the workplace for women too. Poverty makes women sacrifice and survives in every aspect and if it continues then there will no improvement in anything and the present scenario will become permanent.
    The first step to solve these can be education to each and everyone and making access to health care and sanitation. Also making people aware and make them widen their thoughts on these topics so that society would be a better place for women to stand equally with each individual.

    Yash Tiwari
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    @yash
    #32620
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    At a young age, girls in India and many other countries begin to observe the social restrictions placed on them by a society that inhibit them from attending school. They are prohibited from touching food or water while menstruating and bathing. They can’t participate in religious rituals. Many also bear the physical and mental burden of keeping themselves away from their families for days on end, with no company other than a rag-tag group of strangers they call friends. Safe menstrual hygiene management is not only a human right issue, but this situation also burdens women with immense financial costs. According to a survey conducted by UNICEF and Procter & Gamble in 2015, an estimated 1 in 4 girls in India drop out of school due to lack of access to menstrual hygiene products. Not going to school keeps young girls from getting an education that could help them change their circumstances. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty that forces many women and girls around the world to drop their dreams.

    Period poverty' i.e. the significant lack of access to affordable sanitary products is nothing but a silent killer of girls and women. When it comes to periods, people are not comfortable talking about it yet due to many social taboos surrounding them. The government has foreseen the condition of women and their ability to purchase sanitary pads during a month, therefore, they provide economical pads for those who are in need so that the situation doesn’t get worse.Period poverty is understood as the inability to afford sanitary hygiene products while purchasing other basic needs such as food throughout the month or going to school or work.

    Period poverty and stigma seem like a simple problem. But it’s not as easy as it sounds, because “periods are a natural experience in life”. Menstruation is a natural process in pregnancy and is the shedding of the uterine lining at the end of the menstrual cycle. Many women do not know about their bodies and therefore are uncomfortable with what they should do when having their periods. Period poverty is more than just bleeding through your clothes and hoping you don’t have any accidents. Where I live in Togo, a lot of girls miss school or drop out because they can’t afford the expense of pads, which can be three times the cost of other necessities like food and water. Many families don’t even discuss it with their children, so young girls start their periods and don’t know what’s happening to them and there are no resources.

    The good news is that this is a solvable problem. Everyone all over the world can help support women and girls through menstrual health management education, advocacy, and donations. There are still some places in the world where menstrual health management is completely absent. And even those who get taught about it may have a hard time affording sanitary pads and other menstrual resources due to poverty. The fact is that menstruation has become a taboo topic in many parts of the world, and this silence around it surrounds it with stigma. This must change.

    PALAK KASHIV
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    @palak
    #32627
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    Period, poverty and stigma affect many women around the world, there is a tax on sanitary napkins and tampons because it is considered as non-essential goods, women do not buy this because they are costly for people who cannot afford, women do not prioritize it. Poor people live in unhygienic conditions and they do not have their own washrooms and cleanliness. Some girls do not want to go to school because they fear that they will get a period stain on uniforms and people will make fun of it. Government should distribute free sanitary napkins in generic stores because the period is the biological thing for every woman. There are a lot of taboos in society relates to the period, also according to statistics, 12% of women have a period. There are religious beliefs to periods women are considered as untouchable and they are not allowed in the kitchen and they have to do all work of them on their own. There are also cases women who live in really miserable involve them in sexual transmission to earn some money to buy period necessities and for living. Due to the Lack of access to period products women are using newspapers and clothes and even plastic bags. But some countries are really taking constructive toward menstruating people they are trying to removing all taboo and solve the problem by making products affordable. India good thing is much nonprofit organization tries to provide help to the poor people. In India, many women don’t openly talk about menstruation with men they feel shy also they silently suffer all the deadly period cramps, but this wrong if women keep ignoring it will create a risk on their menstrual health. Even men need to show up when women are on period to make sure they are feeling okay. Government and communities need to work on these issues and create hygiene conditions for females.

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