Breaking The Silence: Addressing The Global Crisis Of Period Poverty

As the world celebrates a decade of collective action against period poverty on World Menstrual Hygiene Day, the spotlight is once again cast on the urgent need to address the challenges faced by millions of women and girls worldwide. Menstrual Hygiene Day serves as a reminder of the importance of good menstrual hygiene practices, access to menstrual products, and the need to break the stigmas surrounding menstruation. Period poverty is a lack of access to menstrual products, education, and facilities that affects millions of people worldwide causing physical, mental, and emotional challenges. 

Educational Impact

Period poverty has far-reaching consequences, particularly in education. Periods are frequently linked to inadequate menstrual knowledge, shame, and stigma. Menstruation-related prejudice, or "period stigma," is mostly caused by gender stereotypes and long-standing cultural taboos that reinforce the notion that menstruation is unhygienic, unlucky, or dangerous.

Children miss school worldwide while they are menstruating because of potential social or cultural shame. In some nations, two out of every three girls stay away from school due to a lack of education on menstruation. In the UK, more than two million females between the ages of 14 and 21 have missed part day or full day of school per term because of their period. This pattern is also seen in the Gambia, where some girls miss five days of school each month due to a lack of access to sanitary goods and menstruation supplies. This results in a loss of one and a half months of education annually. 

Financial Barriers

The cost of menstruation consumables exacerbates period poverty even further. Menstruation-related shame and taboos are partly to blame, but so are laws and levies that order the "pink tax" on feminine products. For example, there are areas where there are no taxes on Viagra, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction; meanwhile, sanitary products are considered luxury goods and are taxed at the highest rate in the nation.

Health concern

For a safe and healthy menstrual cycle, menstruators need to have access to clean water, sanitary facilities, and affordable, safe menstrual products. Over 35% of people, do not have access to these necessities. Inadequate personal hygiene throughout the menstrual cycle can result in serious health risks such as thrush, UTIs, and reproductive infections. Cultural taboos, traditional gender roles, and unfavourable living situations might also contribute to unfulfilled menstrual health needs.

Young teens, nonbinary people, and transgender men cannot manage their menstruation in a way that is appropriate or safe. Moreover, girls and young women who experience period poverty are also more vulnerable to early and forced marriages, sexual abuse, and female genital mutilation (FGM), all of which have detrimental and immediate health effects.

According to studies conducted in Kenya, some school girls used transactional sex to pay for menstruation supplies, which raised their risk of contracting HIV.

CONCLUSION

Ending period poverty is an insurmountable challenge. It is a matter of human rights, not privilege or sexual difficulties. It calls for a multifaceted approach that involves changes in societal perceptions, more funding, and regulatory adjustments.

Fighting period poverty requires promoting menstrual health education, ensuring that women have access to sufficient sanitary facilities, and offering menstruation products at a low cost or for free.