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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 70% can't afford sanitary napkins, reveals study by Kounteya Sinha

70% can't afford sanitary napkins, reveals study by Kounteya Sinha

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published Published on Jan 22, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 22, 2011
Only 12% of India's 355 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins (SNs).

Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives like unsanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand.

Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70% more common among these women.

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.

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.

These are the findings of the latest study, "Sanitary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right", undertaken by AC Nielsen.

Reviewed and endorsed by community development organisation Plan India, the survey was conducted in October 2010 and involved 1,033 women in the menstrual age and 151 gynaecologists from across India.

Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director, Plan India, said, "This study reveals the dismal state of feminine hygiene care in India and shows rampant unhygienic sanitary practices. In comparison, 100% women in Singapore and Japan, 88% in Indonesia and 64% in China use SNs."

Gynaecologist Dr Malvika Sabharwal from Jeewan Mala hospital 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. Such practices need to change.

Women menstruating should take a bath more than twice a day and change sanitary towels thrice a day. Unhygienic practices could lead to ascending infections -- bacteria entering the urinary tract or uterus from outside."

Nearly 97% gynaecologists in the study believed that use of napkins reduced the risk of severe RTIs. Around 64% of them also believed that STs reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

In the survey conducted in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Gorakhpur, Aurangabad and Vijayawada, around 31% women reported a drop in productivity levels during their periods, missing 2.2 days of work on an average. Menstrual hygiene is lowest in eastern India with 83% women saying their families can't afford SNs.

In north India, over 30% of girls interviewed said they dropped out of school after started menstruating.

The Union health ministry too is waking up to the importance of menstrual health in women. In June 2010, it announced a Rs 150-crore scheme to increase access to and use of SNs to adolescent girls in rural areas.

The scheme envisages supplying a pack of six SNs to Below Poverty Line (BPL) girls at a nominal cost of Rs 1 per pack. Girls in the Above Poverty Line (APL) category will be charged Rs 5 per pack of sanitary napkins. The scheme, however, is yet to take off.

A ministry official said, "This initiative will roll out in phases, with 25% of the country being covered in the first -- 150 districts (1,500 blocks) out of a total of approximately 600 districts. In the first year, this will be rolled out in 150 districts across the country, of which 30 districts will be from the four southern states, Maharashtra and Gujarat, and 120 districts from the northern, central and north-eastern states."

"In the first phase, 1.5 crore girls in the age group of 10-19 years are being targeted. Out of these, the approximate proportion of APL girls is 70% (105 lakh) and that of BPL girls is 30% (45 lakh)," he added.

The Times of India, 23 January, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-cant-afford-sanitary-napkins-reveals-study/articleshow/7344998.cms


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