Periods – that time of the month when a woman experiences her menstrual cycle – is considered a ‘taboo subject’ in most parts of the county, still. And a menstruating woman is still treated as an ‘untouchable’ in households in such places. They are barred from carrying out their routine activities and stepping into prayer areas. But the alarming fact is, due to lack of awareness and hygienic practices, many girls are dropping out from schools.
Understanding the hard reality, District Collector of Purnea, Bihar, Mr. Rahul Kumar, is trying to break the stigmas around periods and focussing on creating MHM (Menstrual Hygiene Management) friendly toilets in school, so that no girl student has to stop coming to school because of periods. Recently, the officer launched the MHM Action Plan in the district. During a conversation with Indian Masterminds, he talked about his plan and vision in detail.
PILOT PROJECT
In July 2021, the district administration, under the leadership of Mr. Kumar, did multiple meetings and brainstorming sessions with the stakeholders of the initiative, including the Nav Astitva Foundation. Soon after, a pilot project was launched in Kasba block.
Mr. Kumar said, “We identified more than 1200 women workers, which included teachers, lady supervisors, Jeevika Didi, Aasha and Anganvadi workers. We arranged several sessions with them which focused on awareness related to health, hygiene and sanitation practices around menstruation. All of them will work as master trainers, and we will rotate them in the district according to our action plan.”
In the sessions, the women workers were taught hygienic practices to be followed during the cycle and how to make viable sanitary napkins by using unused cloths at home.
CREATING AWARENESS
Mr. Kumar pointed out that women are shy to talk about menstruation, which leads to various problems related to reproductive and wholesome health. It is high time that they cast aside the stigma associated with menstruation cycle and came out to openly talk about it.
“Our aim is to take all departments together in this task for creating awareness for menstruation hygiene. We can only progress if our women are healthy and not losing out on opportunities due to any social barriers.”
TARGETTING EVERY HOME
Apart from creating awareness, the administration is also focusing on repairing and modifying girl’s toilets in the schools and making them functional. A proposal for making 200 MHM friendly toilets in the schools has been accepted by NITI Aayog and a grant has been sent in this regard to the district administration.
All toilets will have basic facilities and a sanitary pad bank with 100 pads in it. A wooden box with all kinds of educational material regarding periods will also be installed in the high schools. Besides this, setting up of MHM libraries, with all kinds of literature around menstrual and reproductive health, is also in the process. The administration has already placed orders for the materials and is hoping to achieve these targets within a year. Meanwhile, four sanitary pad vending machines have already been installed in the Srinagar block of the district.
“We have 2900 schools in the district, and the number of girl students is around 185000 thousand, with around 6000 women teachers. We are now focusing on making menstrual health a part of education. The teachers will be trained so that they can take sessions on menstrual health in schools,” informed Mr. Kumar, while saying that his aim is to reach every home in the district, to remove the stigma around periods or menstruation cycle.
