HYDERABAD: Switch to cloth pads and menstrual cups. This was the message sent out by experts from different fields at the one-day seminar on Menstrual Health Awareness held in the city on Sunday.
Organised on the theme of celebrating ‘The Blood’, several health care specialists, social workers, young boys and girls took part in the fest to bust the taboo around menstruation.
One of the critical elements of the discussion was centred around handling of menstrual waste. Speaking at the fest, a resource person noted, “Menstrual waste disposal is the biggest challenge being faced by the society. While throwing down This further pollutes the lake and infects the flora and fauna too. The other option is throwing it in the bin, but then the sanitary workers run the threat of getting infected by the waste,” noted Mr Arun Kumar, CEO of Elemantra Enterprises, a waste management firm.
Speaking at the fest, Dr Anusha Pilli, co-founder of Menstrual Festival noted, “We have done a survey of roughly 500 women across the country and found that 92 per cent of them use commercial pads and have a frequency of changing the pad twice a day, which is not a healthy practice. Also, there are a lot of irregularities in terms of how menstrual waste is dealt with as most sanitation workers seem to find it loathsome to deal with this kind of waste.”
To overcome these, experts noted it would be better for urban women to switch to sustainable products like cotton cloth pads, menstrual cups, instead of plastic-intensive sanitary pads.