Hygiene programme for girls is necessity: Dr. Sujata

SHEWA NGO distributes sanitary napkins in Swami Ramtirath kanya vidhyalaya, Rajpur Road to ensure hygiene and prevent girls from any medical complications during menstrual cycle.

“It’s very essential to educate rural folks and motivate the women to use such sanitary pads. It will not only help them to maintain hygiene but may also put an end to irrelevant practice of keeping women out of house during menstrual cycle” said Dr Sujata Sanjay.

Gynaecologist Dr. Sujata Sanjay from Sanjay Maternity Centre added, \"Talking about menstrual health is still a societal taboo. Women are barred from entering temples and kitchens at such times. Some don't even take a bath during periods.It is generally observed that there are so many taboos about menstruation due to our socio-cultural restrictions and mindsets The socialization process is so strong that even the women themselves think that during menstruation they become impure. Studies show that most of the girls are not properly explained about menstruation and they believe that the menstrual blood is impure. Besides, menstrual hygiene is highly ignored in the society that affects women’s health. Such practices need to change.

Women menstruating should take a bath more than twice a day and change sanitary towels thrice a day. Poor practices can increase a woman's susceptibility to reproductive tract infections (RTI) and Urinary tract infection (UTI).

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.

“Across India, there are 73 per cent urban women using hygienic methods of protection during menstruation and only 47.6 per cent women using hygienic method in rural areas. Inadequate menstrual protection 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.said Dr Sujata.

\"Being a woman is the most complete experience. We embody and express naturally the qualities of nurturing and empathy, gentlesness and compassion and an incredible inner strength. We are Laxmi, Saraswati, Parvati, Durga and Kali.I also want to create more awareness about female foeticide and gender bias”.she said

Dr. Sujata, while speaking on the topic of ‘woman empowerment’, said: “Though women have made their mark in academic field, she is somehow unaware of her rights, which creates a number of problems in her journey of life”. She also highlighted various achievements made by women in diverse fields.

\"There is an urgent need to remove the taboo that is associated with sanitary napkins. I think awareness is needed about the subject of menstruation. Starting from the medical shop owner, who wraps the napkin packets as if they are forbidden goods, to talking freely about problems a woman faces during periods, everything needs to be discussed,\" said Dr. Sujata Sanjay

Mr. Pratik secretary SHEWA NGO told \"Many girls are not aware of their own bodies and the menstrual cycle. Menstrual hygiene and awareness is as important as education to improve status of girl child in India.\"

\"Providing sanitary pads and increasing awareness will help them stay in school and take up good jobs later,\" he said.