MENSTRUAL HYGIENE AND SANITATION PRACTICES

The vision of our Late Honorable Chief Minister Dr. J Jayalalithaa is that ‘Women should
have self confidence to carry out their responsibilities by keeping their health physically fit
to meet challenges.

International Women’s day is celebrated across the world not to honor a single woman or
to any organization it is to honor the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.

In the year of 1908, Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become
more vocal and active in campaigning for change as a result 15,000 women marched
through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National
Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women
continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

Similar events were happened in the subsequent years in various countries. Women’s were
protested and marched in large number as a result they got the basic right of a citizen that
is right to vote.

Now all of us have the right to vote and to contest in election, now we have the better
access to the education in par with the men. And we women have reached the space
(kalpana Chawla). Earlier it was only a dream now we achieved it.

As a sanitary worker am I going to space? No. But we need to aware of our activity happens
cyclically inside our body for a certain period of our life.

Menstrual Hygiene is an issue that every girl and woman has to deal with once she enters
adolescence around the age of 12 and until she reaches the menopause somewhere in her
40’s. Overall, a woman spends approximately 2,100 days menstruating which is equivalent
to almost six years of her life. Menstruation is a monthly occurrence that requires access to
appropriate materials and facilities, without which, females suffer from poor menstrual
hygiene which restricts their movement and self confidence. Good menstrual hygiene is
therefore crucial for the health, education and dignity of girls and women.
Only 18.67% of adolescent girls had knowledge about menstruation before menarche. As
high as 67% of them did not know the cause of menstruation. 23.33% of the girls believed
that menstrual bleed comes from the same pathway from which urine comes. Nearly all
girls (96.67%) reported sanitary pad usage during the duration of mensuration. Two-third
(66%) of the girls was secluded during menstruation and majority (81.3%) were restricted
to attend school.
Menstruation is a normal physiological process indicating beginning of
reproductive life but sometimes it is considered as unclean phenomenon in
the Indian society. Insufficient, incorrect information regarding menstruation
is often a cause of unnecessary restrictions in the daily normal activities of the
menstruating girls creating various psychological issues. Besides, the lack of
knowledge and awareness also lead to some poor personal hygienic practices
during menstruation leading to many reproductive tract infections.

Menstrual hygiene depends upon the educational, socioeconomic, and cultural

statuses of family

Poor menstrual hygiene causes great impact in increased vulnerability to

reproductive tract infections (RTI). Currently millions of women sufferers
from RTI and infection are transmitted to the offspring. Women having
knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene are less vulnerable to RTI and its
consequences. Therefore, increased knowledge about menstruation from
adolescent period help in decreased suffering of millions of women.[3]
Various studies indicate that a huge information gap exists among rural and
urban adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene.