Sanitary pads and panties: Rohingya women working to help others

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - In the world's largest refugee camp, dozens of Rohingya women work diligently, their small factory a hub of activity; they're making sanitary pads and women's underwear to be distributed to Rohingya refugee women like them.

The one-room factory near Kutupalong refugee camp is buzzing, the quiet chatter of conversation barely discernible over whirring sewing machines set up in rows. Workers crouch on the floor, drawing patterns with white chalk on black fabric stretched down the middle of the room.

Others cut fabric, sew and iron sanitary napkins.

"It's very much needed for the women," Hasina Begum, the factory's supervisor told Al Jazeera, referring to the washable and reusable napkins.

"If they do not use them and rely instead on dirty cloths, they will fall sick."

The 40-year-old, who is from Cox's Bazar, said before the production, Rohingya women were afflicted with a number of diseases including leukorrhea, gonorrhoea and other vaginal infections.

"We are distributing these products to women and also instructing them on how to use them," she said.

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Analysis of Menstrual Hygiene Practices in Nepal: About this report

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools (WinS) programme in Nepal is part of a global initiative of UNICEF; its development partners including: Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads, Department of Education, Nepal Red Cross Society, International Development Enterprises, Federation of Drinking Water and Sanitation Users Nepal and Nepal Fertility Care Center; and its development donors including: the Government of Finland, Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF National Committees. UNICEF Nepal has supported the implementation of WinS programme systematically since 2000 through the School Sanitation and Hygiene Education programme (SSHE).

In 2006, UNICEF Nepal developed the school-led total sanitation approach which contributed to school and community sanitation. This approach has been replicated and implemented in many countries in Asia and Africa. The programme aims to provide a safe and healthy environment in schools so that all students can fully benefit from their education experience. The WinS is based on a child-rights approach that recognizes all children have the right to have access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation facilities, hand washing facilities (with soap) and are provided with the knowledge and skills that promote lifelong health and safe hygiene practices. The programme is based on a body of evidence demonstrating the health and educational benefits for children in hygiene promotion, adequate sanitation and safe water in schools.

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Nepal outlaws custom of exiling women during their periods

Campaigners welcome the introduction of jail sentences and fines for isolating women during menstruation but warn education is needed to end stigma. Nepal has passed a law criminalizing the practice of banishing women to huts during their periods.

The ancient Hindu tradition of Chhaupadi, whereby women are confined to animal sheds during menstruation to keep “impurity” out of the home, was banned by the supreme court in 2005. But the practice has remained prevalent in Nepal’s remote west and has led to the deaths of two teenage girls in the past year.

Last month, a 19-year-old girl in Dailekh district died from a snake bite after she was forced to sleep in a shed. In December, Roshani Tiruwa, 15, suffocated in a poorly ventilated mud-and-stone hut in Achham district after lighting a fire in an effort to stay warm.

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रजस्वला हुँदा छुवाछुत गर्नेलाई ३ महिना कैद

दुई वर्षअघि अछाम गाज्रा–७ की १५ वर्षीय रोशनी तिरुवाको छाउपडी गोठमै मृत्यु भयो। रजस्वला भएर गोठमा सुतेकी उनी बिहान उठ्दै उठिनन्।। जाडोयाम थियो। गोठमा आगो बालेर उनी सुतेकी थिइन्। हावा ओहोरदोहर गर्ने कुनै झ्याल नभएको उक्त गोठभित्र धूँवाले निस्सासिएर रोशनीको मृत्यु भएको प्रहरीले जनाएको थियो।

२०७३ साल मंसिर ३ गते अछामकै तिमिल्सेन गाविसकी डम्बरा उपाध्याय बिहान छाउगोठमा मृत फेला परिन्। गएको पुसमा पनि अछामको तुर्माखाँद गाउँपालिका, भैरवस्थानकी २२ वर्षीया गौरी बूढाको पनि छाउगोठमै मृत्यु भयो। यी तीनै मृत्युका खबर मिडियामा समाचार बने। तर उनीहरूको मृत्युमा कोही दोषी भएन।

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India scraps tax on sanitary pads in boost for girls' education

NEW DELHI, July 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India scrapped a controversial tax on sanitary pads on Saturday, a move hailed by campaigners who say it will help more girls to go to school during their periods and boost their job prospects. Activists say removing the tax on pads tackles one of the biggest barriers to education for girls, who are often forced to stay at home due to a lack of access to clean hygiene products, while also facing stigma and a lack of toilets in schools.

Periods are among the leading factors for girls to drop out of school in a country where four out of five women and girls are estimated by campaigners to have no access to sanitary pads. “I am sure all mothers and sisters will be very happy to hear that sanitary pads are now 100 percent exempt from tax,” India’s interim finance minister, Piyush Goyal, told reporters at a news conference in New Delhi.

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मन्त्रीसँग किशोरीको याचना : रजश्वला हुँदा घरमै बस्न पाऊँ

काठमाडौं : ‘अब त अति भो ! महिनावारीका सबै सीमा तोडौं’ भन्ने नाराका साथ नेपालमा पहिलो पटक मनाइएको ‘राष्ट्रिय मर्यादित महिनावारी दिवस’मा विशिष्ट अतिथि चार मन्त्री सामु दैलेखकी किशोरी विमला कार्कीले छाउगोठमा रात बिताउनु पर्दाको वेदना पोखिन् । चार वर्षयता महिनावारी भएका बेला एकान्त गोठमा बस्दै आएकी १६ वर्षीया कार्कीले निवेदन गरिन्, ‘सात दिनसम्म छाउगोठमै बस्नुपर्दा सर्पले डस्छ कि, बाहिरका व्यक्ति आएर केही गर्ने हुन् कि भन्ने डर लागिरहन्छ ।’

युनिसेफले दुई वर्षअघि १५ हजार महिलामा गरेको अध्ययनमा नेपालमा ७१ प्रतिशत महिला तथा किशोरी महिनावारीको समयमा घरबाहिर बस्ने गरेको पाइएको छ । स्कुल गएका बेला महिनावारी भयो भने पढाइ बीचैमा छाडेर घर फर्कनुपर्ने बाध्यता छ । उनले सुनाइन, ‘स्कुलमा कुनै सुविधा छैन । घर नफर्की सुखै छैन ।’
विद्यालय छाड्ने मुख्य कारणमा दुखाइ, रगत चुहिने र कपडामा रगतको दाग देखिने डर पाइएको छ ।

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“We don’t talk about it at all !” The taboo of menstruation in rural Maharashtra

Priyanka, 13 and a chirpy adolescent girl studying in a government school in a village called ‘Rohini Gaun’ 25 kms from Wardha in Maharashtra blushes and says, "We don’t talk about it at all!". That is how deep seated the taboo around menstruation is in rural India and our society as a whole, where mothers do not discuss it with their daughters or even among themselves. It is something to be 'hidden' from each other and the men folk of the household as if it never happened!  Priyanka gushes and says, "I got my menses when I turned thirteen few months ago and till that very time, I had no information about what menstrual cycle is." She says her mother told her nothing to prepare her for the change in her physiology and her life in general. "Menstruation onset turned my life upside down in more ways than one," Priyanka says regretfully, as if she felt she had been better off before it began.

In rural India as a whole, menstruation is a taboo writ with stigma not permitting discussion or even information seeking. Because of the shame and superstitions associated with this monthly biological occurrence, these women are impacted by poor menstrual hygiene. On an average a woman has 3000 days of menstruation in her lifetime, which begins from 8-16 years and ends in her late forties or early fifties, with very real and practical needs like material for absorption of menstrual blood, facilities for proper disposal of used materials with privacy and dignity.

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