BHUBANESWAR: Even as the government has been pushing hard to improve menstrual hygiene practices among women, a recent study revealed half of the respondents had problems in accessing sanitary products while about 37 per cent (pc) couldn’t afford to buy sanitary products.
The findings of the study conducted by Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar (IIPHB) were shared at a state level consultation workshop on ‘menstrual health and hygiene: practices and policies in Odisha’ here on Tuesday.
The study was conducted among adolescent girls and menstruating women in Bhadrak, Balangir and Koraput districts. About half of the respondents said they didn’t have knowledge about menstruation before menarche.
While 60 pc respondents used sanitary pads and about 31 pc still used cloth, around 7 pc used both sanitary napkins and cloth. The study found that almost 67 pc respondents couldn’t access toilets when travelling out of home.
“Most importantly, 30 pc women feel that using sanitary pad over cloth is not beneficial for reproductive health and 35.4 pc would not prefer sanitary pad over cloth. About 27 pc respondents in educational institutes and 71 pc who were employed, didn’t have access to separate room/space to change their menstrual materials,” said additional professor of IIPHB Bhuputra Panda.
About 59 pc respondents admitted that they threw their used sanitary products into the bushes and 32 pc waited to come back home to dispose of their menstrual materials and 7.8 pc flushed the materials into the toilets.
Based on these findings and after several consultations with line departments and other stakeholders, IIPHB and UNICEF have developed a draft state policy on menstrual health and hygiene for finalisation by the state government.
The health experts from AIIMS, Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), SOA university and senior government officials recommended introduction of menstrual education in school curriculum from Std V instead of Std VIII as is the practice now.
Stressing on the quality of sanitary pads, the experts urged the state government to prepare a guideline for the manufacturers as many substandard sanitary pads, now available in the market, are harmful to women’s health.
NHM mission director Dr Brundha D said the state government has launched Khusi scheme with an aim to ensure good and proper menstrual hygiene practices by all women in the state by 2030.
“Several good suggestions have been received from the panelists which will help fine-tune the policy. It will be released after approval of the government,” Prof Panda added.