Support for menstrual health for girls in India

Girls’ right to education is being violated through inadequate menstrual hygiene education, insufficient water and sanitation facilities and poor access to sanitary menstrual materials. Menstrual hygiene facilities and services keep girls on school where they can reach their full potential.

So far, we have registered approximately 800 girls and their mothers on the Smiley Days Programme. This number creates a significant member base for our campaign and we hope to build on this in the coming months to attain our target of reaching out to 5000 girls and women in the local community.Since most of the beneficiaries are enrolled in schools, we direct our efforts towards partnering with these institutions on a wide range of events:

Awareness workshop

Awareness workshops were organized at Upper Primary School of Sattoli, Etmadpur Block Agra. School girls have participated and discussed their issues related to menstrual hygiene and health. The majority of girls in rural communities use waste cloths to absorb menstrual blood because they cannot afford the cost of sanitary napkins. Furthermore, in some cases, they lack awareness on how to use them.Whilst the majority of girls were initially hesitant to speak about their experiences, they opened up to the IDF team through the Quiz Card activity.  By allowing them to write their questions instead of asking out loud, we were able to get much more engagement and frankness in our discussion.

Establishment of Smiley Girls Club:We have established Smiley Girls Clubs in all partner schools.

The clubs will help to disseminate campaign information among the other girls of the school and it will also help to gather and share experiences with their peer groups in a safe environment. 10% girls from partner schools have been selected to constitute the Smiley Girls Club and they have been nominated as the Smiley Girls. They have been selected on the basis of their regularity in the school, dedication towards the campaign, leadership skills that can motivate or inspire other girls, and knowledge about menstrual hygiene.

Informal activities: We have also organized a painting activity in all partner schools, where girls were asked to draw around the theme of ‘Healthy and happy girl’. Through this fun-filled and relaxed activity, we hope to motivate girls to address their ideas on menstruation through the medium of art.

School Facilitators: In addition to directly interacting with the students ourselves, we also believe that teachers are very important to provide the required psycho-social support for their pupils. Therefore we hope to train teachers (at least 2 female teachers) to provide this support to adolescent girls and organize regular hygiene motivation sessions, which will supplement the activities we directly undertake.

We have selected school facilitators in each partner school and have explained their roles and responsibilities under the campaign. The school facilitators have been selected on the basis of their dedication, commitment, and enthusiasm. Under the campaign, we have also interviewed with teachers of the partner schools to understand their opinions and knowledge on this issue.

More than half of the school teachers said that they do not have sufficient knowledge on menstruation hygiene management (MHM) practices and some had basic idea about menstrual health & hygiene. According to the information gathered from teachers, taboos, cultural believes and silence on this issue is the main source of unawareness and lack of knowledge. That is why most of the schools do not integrate MHM issue within their curricular activities and the situation is most obvious in co-education schools where girls and boys both study together.

Renovation of toilets in schools

This time has been more crucial for IDF to spot the locations for construction of new toilets and renovation for the old toilets in the schools for the girls. Under the WASH practices, we also stresses the importance of school toilets which are built to accommodate menstruating girls’ specific needs for privacy, space, washing facilities and correct disposal of menstrual pads and installation of wash basin for healthy hand wash practices.We have chosen/spotted those schools which do not have functioning toilets.Under the project, we also stresses the importance of school toilets which are built to accommodate menstruating girls specific needs for privacy, space, washing facilities and correct disposal or cleaning of menstrual pads.

However, separate toilets will give facilities and privacy to girls at the schools to change their sanitary pads/materials easily and hygienic way.

During the personal interviews with adolescent girls, some of the girls have expressed their problems regarding their irregularity in schools during their periods.

Other relevant activities

Health kit distribution: In addition to generating awareness about good menstrual health practices, we also believe that we must provide girls with the required utilities such as sanitary napkins. We are currently in the process of finalizing the purchase of these kits, which will be then distributed to the adolescent girls registered on the Smiley Days campaign. We will also be organizing the 1^st health camp under this campaign in January 2017.

Community initiatives: We also recognize that for a campaign to be truly successful, one needs to consider the local environment in addition to the beneficiaries. We are therefore in the process of mapping 5-6 local communities to improve sanitation facilities; we are currently working on toilet and wash basin construction in three schools and three households. We hope to create a long-term solution to hygiene issues in our target areas through such construction.

IDF has already organized various activities and is working towards meeting the objectives of our Smiley Days campaign. In the forthcoming year, we hope to build on our existing model and ensure that we reach all our metrics across education, provision of supplies and engagement with stakeholders and communities.