PROGRAMME DESIGN ON MENSTRUATION AND USAGE OF SANITARY PADS IN RURAL AREAS

Submitted by: Tarique Imran

M.A. Development Communication

AJKMCRC, JAMIA MILIA ISLAMIA

 MENSTRUATION AND USAGE OF SANITARY PADS IN RURAL AREAS
- Md. Tarique Imran
Situational Analysis
Review of literature

Women and girls constitute half of India’s population. Yet, gender disparities remain a critical issue in
India impacting women and girls’ education, health, and workforce participation. Data shows that girls are
largely on par with boys up to adolescence, but with the onset of puberty, outcomes for girls begin to diverge
and girls face increasing restrictions to their mobility and agency.

There are over 355 million menstruating women and girls in India, but millions of women across the country
still face significant barriers to a comfortable and dignified experience with menstrual hygiene management
(MHM). A study found that 71% of girls in India report having no knowledge of menstruation before their
first period. At menarche, schoolgirls in Jaipur, Rajasthan report their dominant feelings to be shock (25%),
fear (30%), anxiety (69%), guilt (22%), and frustration (22%). Further, 70% of women in India say their
family cannot afford to buy sanitary pads. And in 2012, 40% of all government schools lacked a functioning
common toilet, and another 40% lacked a separate toilet for girls. Not even 50% women used clean
methods of dealing with menstrual hygiene in eight states and union territories. The mean for these eight
states was 43.5%, with Bihar the worst at 31%, according to the National Family Health Survey-4
(NFHS), released in 2015-16.

Menstruation is still a taboo subject in India. Even now, women are considered “impure” during their
period, subjected to social, religious and cultural restrictions, according to a study on menstrual health
management. It was conducted by a collective of organisations dealing with water, sanitation and
hygiene.

These practices have resulted in a culture of silence around the subject of period hygiene – 70% of
Indian mothers consider menstruation “dirty”, as per the findings of a study.

This shame around menstruation also forces girls to opt out of school once they reach puberty, impeding
the growth of female literacy in India. In rural India, 23% of girls have listed menstruation as the chief
reason for dropping out of school. As many as 28% of them said they do not go to school during their
period because they lack clean and affordable protection, according to figures collated by Rutgers, an
organisation advocating sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Communication Analysis (Already there)

The government of India through various schemes started spreading awareness about the menstrual hygiene
through schools, aganbadi schemes etc.

Government of India has approved a scheme to improve menstrual hygiene for 1.5 Crore adolescent girls
by distributing low cost sanitary napkins in rural areas under the National Rural Health Mission since 2010.
 In the state of Tamil Nadu, UNICEF (PDF) has developed an affordable incinerator that uses firewood to
handle sanitary napkin waste at schools, where students may be pressed for time or seek the greater
convenience of commercial products.

In Southern Rajasthan, advocates are pressing for environmentally friendly sanitary products.
Organizations such as Jatan Sansthan are mobilizing local women to produce and use affordable, reusable
sanitary pads. These types of initiatives can provide sustainable solutions and stimulate the local economy
by creating jobs for women.

Swot analysis

Strength Weakness

Women’s Menstrual problem has attained the status Lack of access to sanitary napkins as only 18% of
serious health issue in India and government and NGO women in India use Sanitary Napkin.
has started promoting its awareness.

Threats Opportunities

Women of all ages are effected by reproductive The central government is recently started working
infection during their period by not using sanitary actively on this issue and is implementing various
napkin. campaign, which altogether can help the programme
efficiency.

Root Cause

According to historian N.N.Bhattacharyya, different areas of India have had notions of the menstruating
goddess. In Punjab, it was believed that Mother Earth (‘Dharti Ma’) ‘slept’ for a week each month. In some
parts of the Deccan after the ‘navaratra’ goddess temples were closed from the tenth to the full moon day
while she rests and refreshes herself. In Malabar region, Mother Earth was believed to rest during the hot
weather until she got the first shower of rain. Still today in the Kamakhya temple of Assam and in parts of
Orissa the rituals of the menstruation of the goddess are celebrated during the monsoon season.

In many cultures, the menstrual cycle was seen as a gift and when a girl would menstruate for the first time,
it would be celebrated in public. But this again is a problematic view as the menstrual cycle was seen as a
boon for reproduction. Even when people celebrated it, they had a reductionist view that a woman’s ultimate
goal in life is reproduction.

Cultural perceptions such as colour of the menstrual blood govern their perception of what is normal and
abnormal. They resist using sanitary napkin because it is difficult to dispose them off. They fear it might
fall into the hands of someone who can use Jadu tona (black magic) against them.
Talking about menstruation has been a taboo even among planners. It received the attention of the Ministry
of Health only in 2011. Close to 70% per cent of Indian women risk getting severe infection, at times
causing death, due to poverty, ignorance and shame attached to their menstruation cycle.

Problem statement

Most rural households lack separate closed spaces which can be used for bathing and excretory purposes.
The reality is that when you can barely make ends meet, hygiene issues become the last of your priorities.
This is what forces women to bathe in the open in ponds, wells and the like. Because of this lack of secrecy,
they bathe wearing clothes which add to the moisture accumulating all over their body, especially the
genitals, thus giving rise to numerous diseases.

Lack of financial resources not only prevents one from getting a bathroom constructed, it also leads to the
inability to buy other necessities to maintain proper hygiene. The use of cloth to absorb the menstrual blood
leads to the accumulation of germs even if it is washed regularly. Most of the time rural women don’t even
find proper places to dry their clothes out of shame that is associated with the menstruation social taboo and
inability to buy sanitary napkins make menstruation a monthly face-off with deadly diseases.

Education is another important part of the human development which is absent from the life of rural women.
In families where finance is an issue the right to education is extended to women only as long as it is free.
This among all other things renders them unaware of the problems that improper hygiene practices expose
them to. It also adds to the existing taboos against menstruation and menstruating women. When you don’t
know what is wrong, how can you be expected to correct them?

Menstruation, in these parts of the country, is considered an evil which woman should be ashamed of. This
approach leads to women trying to hide everything related to their period days. The easiest, most secretive
place to dump the sanitary napkins turns out to be the place where you take a bath for men won’t come
there. The situation is worse for those who use cloth for in order to prevent others from finding out their sin
they dry clothes in places out of the reach of everyone, even sunlight, and this cloth is used throughout the
period.

Overarching Goals

 Community based health education campaigns could prove worthwhile in achieving this task. There
is also need to spread awareness among the school teachers regarding menstruation.
 Empowerment of women through education and increasing their role in decision-making can also
aid in this regard.
 Provision of sanitary napkins and adequate facilities for sanitation and washing should be made
available with the gender perspective.
 Low cost sanitary napkins can be locally made and distributed particularly in rural and slum areas
as these are the areas where access to the product is difficult.
 There is a need to link physical infrastructure and water and sanitation projects to health education
and reproductive health programs and address the issue in more holistic ways.
 Smart Objectives

1 Specific Work with Women to let them understand that it is biological process and
sanitization in this very menstrual period should be maximum.

2 Measurable To create awareness among the family about the severity of the issue as non-
usage of napkins would lead to severe health issue.

3 Achievable

4 Relevant

5 Time bound To complete the activities within 6 months

Logic model

No. Resources/ Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

1 Audio/ Visual Puppetry workshops to train Breadwinner of Families

community people the family shall develop the
Family Drama understand the understanding
severity of the with their
issue and shall children
incur part of
their earning in
Sanitary
Napkin.

2 Educational Games Street play for Parents by Society will Talking and
women affected by overcome from creating
reproductive issues due to the traditional awareness
non- use of sanitary pad. approaches of about the issue
taboo and will lead to
accept the fact normalization
that it is a of the issue.
health issue.

3 Trainers/ Doctors Public lecture on health hazard

required to conduct due to unhygienic products
workshops usage in Menstrual period.
 Theory of Change

This programme will create a society wherein menstruation will be treated as normal function of
human body and women can do all sort of work to which they were earlier barred i.e. entering
kitchen, temples etc. The awareness about the health hazard due to non- usage of sanitary napkin
will create a rise in the usage of the sanitary pad.

Approaches

Community-Based Interpersonal or Group Strategic Communication

Approaches Communication Approaches Approaches

● Community ● Advocacy (policy,

mobilization through
street plays
● Community
engagement in
preparing puppetry
show
● Community outreach
● Community
intervention
● Social mobilization
● Empowerment
● Community Health media, agenda-setting)
Workers ● Mass media
● Workers/Health or ● Community media
Social ● Information
● Counseling/Peer Communication
counseling or Technologies
● education (ICTs)/Social media
● Faith-based Social marketing
mobilization ● Positive deviance
● Support groups ● Performances on
● Social networks National events
● School-based
● Creating a Mother
support group

Define the intended audience effectively

• Identify the group to whom you want to communicate your message

- To the Whole Society and Women above age of 14.
• Consider identifying subgroups to whom you could tailor your message
- their parents, families and close circle
• Learn as much as possible about the intended audience; add information about beliefs,
- Below Poverty, Middle income group Main Occupation- begging, menial jobs, labourers
• current actions, and social and physical environment to demographic information
- Menstruation is treated as a taboo, women are barred entry at places such as temples,
kitchen etc and due to such environment women have not taken sanitization during period
as an important issue.
 Explore Channels and Activities

• Interpersonal
• Group
• Organizational and community -
• Mass media-
• Interactive digital media