Pakistan is a place where women's issues are always neglected, and
likewise is their menstrual health. For ages it has been a topic not
to be openly discussed around everyone, specifically in South Asia:
a place where menstrual products are censored by brown paper bags.
"When I purchase sanitary napkins from a local store, they always
wrap it in a newspaper or a paper bag so that no boys or men can see
what I'm purchasing. Why is buying sanitary napkins such a shame? I
want every girl to talk about menstruation without feeling ashamed"
says a 25- year old U-Reporter. According to UNICEF, an 18-year-old
girl in Pakistan describes her experience through a U-Report poll on
menstrual hygiene management (MHM) conducted on the 16th of
February, 2017, "When I first got my period I didn't tell anyone for
several days because I was ashamed, it took me two months to open up
to mother."
Unlike in urban areas and main cities, women in villages or
low-income areas use cloth pads as an alternative to store-bought
menstrual products since they are cheap and easily accessible. In an
interview with Sadaf Naz, founder of Her Ground, she narrates an
incident where a girl used a cloth sheet to manage her period flow,
pushed the cloth inside her vagina, and forgot to take it out. Later
it was surgically removed when she started feeling severe pain. A
UNICEF poll survey revealed that 44% of the girls don't have access
to basic menstrual hygiene products. Not only this, women feel
embarrassed buying sanitary pads since 90% of shopkeepers are found
to be men. What they are unaware of is that reusing and washing the
same cloth pads can contribute to bacterial and fungal infections in
the urinary tract or even pose a threat to their reproductive
health. Unavailability of water in arid regions, lack of privacy,
and incompetent drying areas are culprits of poor menstrual health.
Kitka Goyol, UNICEF Chief of Water Sanitation and Hygiene states,
“The silence around menstruation has led to a lack of knowledge and
choice about safe and reusable options for menstrual products.”
Pakistani women always prioritize their family needs over their
health causing delayed or overlooked medical attention. In return,
they get no attention from their family members nor any relief from
their daily chores. In many areas, older women refer to menstruation
as a sign of impurity so much so that they are not allowed to share
meals or eat from the same plate. Some families have a tradition to
seclude the menstruating woman until her cycle completely ends and
takes a shower. All of this is an unfortunate consequence of
miseducation and mixing their school of thought by taking support
from religion. Some of the baseless myths have been passed down from
their ancestors to the younger generation.
Adolescent girls in Pakistan are deprived of the concept and
importance of menstruation mostly due to a culture of silence around
women's reproductive health. This severely affects young girl's
self-esteem and confidence. Sadly, most girls get to know about
menstruation upon their first experience either from their mothers
or female teachers. Young girls tend to miss school in the first few
days due to fear of spotting or leaving bloodstains on their clothes
in front of their classmates, especially boys, or because of the
simple fact that some experience excruciating cramps and back pains
along with bloating or nausea.
According to UNICEF's shocking statistics, about 49% did not know
about menstruation before their first period. While mothers and
female teachers were the principal sources of guidance at 53% and
27% respectively. Only a small fraction of 0.9% got menstrual
hygiene awareness through the Internet, providing that only certain
areas are functional for Internet access. Whereas, 28% of
respondents claimed that they had to take off from school or work to
take rest or seek abode from men specifically. Shockingly, where
physical education, health, and sports education are mentioned in
the National Educational Policy, menstrual health management is
missing in the National Curriculum Framework of Pakistan. Successive
governments in the past decades have also failed to revise this
framework even after the devastating flash flooding in 2022 in
Balochistan province where period poverty struck thousands of women.
Upon finding it, the women residing there had a misconception in
their minds that cotton pads are a luxury item they can't afford. On
the contrary, you can find cheap alternatives in a local store
nearby to tackle the heavy flow.
Pakistan, a heavily debt and developing country has a lack of funds,
and other health issues as well as education tend to be prioritized
over MHM (Menstrual Hygiene Management) since they face higher
demand from the public. Thus, Pakistan takes aid from local NGOs and
international organizations such as UNICEF, WaterAid, Integrated
Regional Support Program (IRSP), and Real Medicine Foundation (RMF
Pakistan) sponsored by USAID, UNICEF, CIHR, and many more. Not only
that, 'Always', a cotton pad brand distributor of Proctor and Gamble
belonging to the private sector helps by providing training
workshops for underprivileged schools across Pakistan. Apart from
all of this, local people raise funds from donation drives in
hospitals and camps to help support women in crises.
Sources
https://www.unicef.org/innovation/U-Report/menstrual-hygiene-polls-pakistan
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1083688/full
https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/stories/empowering-women-practice-safe-menstruation-0/
https://cbs.lums.edu.pk/sites/default/files/2021-11/Eisha%20Abid.pdf