1. Sanitary Services for women of
Below Poverty Line(BPL)
Households
By- Poornima singh pawar
2. ! WHAT ABOUT THE RURAL WOMEN?
Do we know what they use as sanitary pads-
newspapers, plastics, polythenes, ashes,
cowdung dried cakes, leaves, grass, the worst
and waste cloth and many other things which
is difficult to say or write here….a rough
analysis says that 98% of rural women has
hardly any proper option for sanitary pads!!!!
Think how difficult it is? And its worth reading
how many women die because of lack of this
every year!
3. Rural girl children do not go to school after age of 11-
12 years why? Not because that teachers are not
there, not because that school is not good-but
because they do not have option for sanitary pads
and if they have any option for sanitary pads/napkins
they have no option of place for changing it –as hardly
any toilets or washrooms are there!
Inadequate menstrual protection and care makes
adolescent girls (age group 12-18 years) miss 5 days
of school in a month (50 days a year). Around 23% of
these girls actually drop out of school after they
started menstruating.
4. Many Indian women still use scrap cloth from old
saris and towels, the traditional method for managing
menstruation for thousands of years.
“In order to manage the basic phenomena of
menstruation, sanitary materials are used by women
of all ages, almost from 14 to 45 years of age, though
branded material are available in urban areas but
difficult in rural, in those areas where such materials
are available, they are expensive and difficult to afford
and manage as well,
"All these women are still using old grandmother
methods of managing their monthly period, which is
dangerous to their health and can lead to infection."
5. According to a 2011 study by market research firm
Nielsen, only 12% of India's 355 million menstruating
women use sanitary pads during menstruation.
Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives
like unsanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand.
Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70%
more common among these women.
97 per cent gynaecologists surveyed believe that
sanitary napkins can act as a preventive measure
against Reproductive Tract Infection, while 64 per
cent noted that it can act as a precautionary measure
to reduce the risk of cervical cancer.
6. The biggest barrier to using a sanitary napkin is
affordability. Around 70% of women in India say
their family can't afford to buy them.
About 68 per cent rural women cannot afford sanitary
napkins available in the market, according to a survey.
According to gynaecologists, use of alternative
sanitary care measures such as unsterilized cloths,
sand and ash make women susceptible to infections
and diseases.
On the issue of affordability of quality sanitary care,
the survey found that 81 per cent rural women use
unsterilized cloths since they are cheaper and 68 per
cent said they cannot afford to buy sanitary napkins.
7. They cope with sub-optimal alternatives like
cloth, sand, husk and even ash, which have
severe consequences on health, education
and reproductivity, it said
East India emerged as the region where the
state of feminine hygiene is significantly
poorer. Among women who use cloth, over 70
per cent in East said they feel insecure during
periods and wished they knew more on the
subject.
8. Poor financial condition does not allow majority of the
women to buy quality sanitary napkins, the survey
said, adding of cloth users, 45 per cent reuse cloth
and 70 per cent dry them in shade, increasing
chances of infections.
Women are being forced to use newspapers and
handkerchiefs in place of proper sanitary products
because they cannot afford them, according to
organizers of a food bank in the North East.
Volunteers from the Darlington Salvation Army food
bank said women are having to resort to old socks
and paper because they have been unable to buy
period pads and tampons and are too embarrassed to
ask for help.
9. According to Dasra, women in rural India, use sand,
ashes and straw instead of sanitary pads, making
them extremely prone to Reproductive Tract
Infections.
Kamala Sripada/CNN-IBN
10. We find a corner in the house, where the others can’t
see, and the dry them."
Kamala Sripada/CNN-IBN
11. The study found that awareness on basic health and
feminine hygiene is very low, with 75 per cent rural
women lacking adequate knowledge on menstrual
hygiene and care.
The nationwide survey was conducted in October on a
sample size of 1,033 rural women and 151
gynaecologists.
