There are striking contrasts between hygiene-related problems of various countries and the differences between the everyday situations of people. Many of the problems regarding hygiene experienced by populations in the industrialised world can be compared with the basic hygiene shortages prevalent in other parts of the world. Hygiene concerns us all in different ways. Improved hygiene and sanitary conditions allow people to have dignity, an identity and pride. Good hygiene also reduces the spread of disease in the world and will go on to create better health conditions and stronger social development in the long term. With increased prosperity, we will have a healthier society, which is definitely a more pleasant one to live in.

In matters of personal and intimate hygiene, women’s needs and desires are similar the world over. Menstruation and the need for feminine care and period protection is not an optional facet in the lives of women. In total, women spend around six to seven years of their lives menstruating. A key priority for women and girls is to have the necessary knowledge, facilities and cultural environment to manage menstruation hygienically, and with dignity. Yet the importance of menstrual hygiene management is mostly neglected.

Menstruation shows that a woman is healthy and fertile. Unfortunately, all kinds of beliefs and taboos have developed around this natural cycle. The paucity of private sanitation facilities for women reflects the appalling state of feminine hygiene in our country. Studies reveal that rural school going girls either do not have proper usable toilets or have to share the toilets with the boys in their school.

In addition, the problem of the lack of awareness, neglect and transparency pertaining to feminine hygiene in India is only compounded by the rampant scarcity, or even widespread inaccessibility to basic sanitation infrastructure in the country. It is distressing to note that many Indian women cannot even afford the basic sanitation exercises. Disposable sanitary napkins from multinational companies are widely available in the urban market but many rural women cannot afford to use these. Moreover, for young girls or women in rural areas, this kind of protection is not easily available as these MNCs have limited reach. Cultural taboos and lack of knowledge also prevents them from accessing the same.

Every year, roughly 210 million women of menstruating age living in rural India are precluded from contributing to their communities simply because they lack access to affordable sanitary protection compounded with a lack of knowledge, awareness and information about them. A natural bodily cycle such as menstruation should never impact negatively on women’s empowerment and their freedom to participate fully in society – socially, educationally and professionally.

Due to various prevailing practices, the mismanagement of hygiene issues of young girls and women has major implications. One primary impact of the cultural practices and lack of services for menstrual hygiene management on girls is access to education. Usually girls attending school are stopped from continuing to do so by their parents once they reach menstruation, mostly because they will soon be married. This is because menstruation is regarded as a sign of readiness for marriage. The situation is more prevalent in the southern part of India, as cited in Caldwell, Reddy’s study 2007. Even when girls are not completely withdrawn from school, menstruation affects the attendance for many due to lack of privacy for cleaning and washing and dearth of availability of a disposal system and adequate water supply.

The implications of this issue is not just limited to the increased number of drop outs, be it in school or work but also on one’s health. Poor menstrual hygiene, that is, resorting to alternative unhygienic measures such as unsterilised cloths, husk, sand and ash during menstrual cycle render women susceptible to infections and diseases pertaining to the urinary tract.

These cumulative effects of ignoring menstrual hygiene, access to water, sanitation and hygiene services, education and health affect, the achievement of development goals.

Women play a crucial role as change agents in the developing world, when they are placed at the center for decisions on water, sanitation and hygiene related programmes and activities. The effects of both improved service provision and better knowledge about hygiene are felt throughout the wider community, most obviously through improved general health and quality of life.

At the same time, there are more subtle effects of these measures on the lives of women, such as greater confidence, increased capacity to earn money and the fact that women are likely to be healthier, happier and have more time to concentrate on making their home a better place to live. Ultimately, what is good for women is good for the family and the whole community who share the benefit from all these improvements.

In order for women and girls to live healthy, productive and dignified lives, it is essential that they are able to manage menstrual bleeding effectively. This requires access to appropriate water, sanitation and hygiene services, including low-cost sanitary napkins—which are easily available and accessible—clean water for washing clothes used to absorb the menstrual blood and having a place to dry them, having somewhere private to change clothes or disposable sanitary pads, facilities to dispose of used cloths and pads, and access to information on how to manage menstruation hygienically. Besides addressing such practical needs, it is also necessary to promote better awareness amongst women and men to overcome the embarrassment, cultural practices and taboos around menstruation that impact negatively on women and girls’ lives and reinforce gender inequities and exclusion.

In India, particularly in the rural areas, most women use cloth and rags during their menstrual days. This is because price is the biggest entry barrier. A pack of eight sanitary napkins manufactured by multinational companies like Procter & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson, costs somewhere between Rs 30-80. Therefore, average spending during the menstruation days would be around Rs 60, which is expensive by Indian standards.

They are a few solutions at local state and district level by NGOs and/or individual innovators, but the outreach of their product is limited to a few small geographical areas around the country, catering to a small target group. The absence of proper delivery channels and supply chains are currently a big hindrance for them to be commercially available at scale.

Recently, the government also has come up with a subsidy scheme for girls between the age group of 10 to 19 years, wherein the napkins will be supplied to the girls living under Below Poverty Line, at a nominal cost of Re. 1 per pack of 6 while the girls living in the above poverty line will be supplied at Rs 5 per pack. Again, such schemes are not based on the sustainability factor.

Low cost sanitary napkins can be made readily accessible to women at affordable rates, through scalability and sustainability of production. Rural women groups can be trained to use available low cost production technology, thereby developing and ensuring their livelihood options. A huge market, great potential and excellent profit margin is envisaged in manufacturing of sanitary napkins in India. The Indian market is quite huge and according to reports available only 35 per cent of India’s requirement is currently manufactured in India.

Understanding what controls the everyday life of girls and women, and how they view their existence, will constantly be a crucial factor for succeeding in the management of hygiene issues.  q