It is an 8ftx8ft windowless mud room with no electricity that is Vaishali Padmukh’s home for four days every month. Every time she gets her period, the 37-year-old resident of Sitatoli village in Gadchiroli district is banished to a ‘period hut’ known as kurma ghar or gaokar in local lingo. Located on the outskirts of the village, the hut is …
BENGALURU: Shuchi, the Karnataka government’s programme to promote menstrual hygiene among schoolgirls, is dogged by logistics issues which are undermining its objectives. While the programme envisages distribution of free sanitary napkins to adolescent girls, the enabling atmosphere is missing in most government and aided schools and hostels. No access to water, lack of soaps to wash hands, absence of paper …
New Delhi: “Since childhood, I have seen my mother suffer during those 4-5 days. I have seen her going through all the pain. I have witnessed the problems associated with the word ‘menstruation’ and how taboo is linked to menstruation. I am from Odisha, there we observe a three-day festival called Raja Parba, which is to celebrate womanhood. If we rejoice …
Handing out non-biodegradable sanitary pads to rural school girls who have reached menarche will not address their menstrual hygiene issue. Clean and functional toilets with water supply, awareness about menstruation, economical and biodegradable pads and more is needed, finds Puja Awasthi. Anupama Shukla, a postgraduate in sociology adheres to the belief that menstruation is ‘dirty’ and any breach of its …
