GUWAHATI: Despite a lot of initiatives being taken up to create awareness on menstrual hygiene, women belonging to the underprivileged section of the society still prefer using cloth instead of sanitary napkins during their periods.
With some schools installing sanitary napkin dispensing machines and opening menstrual hygiene rooms, the female fraternity have now got a lot more options to choose a napkin over a piece of cloth.
However, a number of issues including pricing and taboos associated with menstruation have been holding women back from using sanitary napkins during such days.
In order to get a clearer picture on the subject, G Plus visited the city’s Bamunimaidan area and Hairjan Colony in Ulubari to meet the women living in those areas.
Why cloth over pad?
When asked about what led them to use cloth, one of the women named Katputli (24) who lives in the railway colony, Bamunimaidan told G Plus, “I have been using cloth since my childhood. I have never felt the need of using a pad. Although there are times when I felt less-than-confident about using cloth, I am now accustomed to it.”
A mother of five children, Katputli currently lives with her family in one small room made of bamboo and tin.
Another woman, Radhika Kaur (25) (named changed), said that buying a sanitary napkin is a matter of luxury for her even though she had tried using the napkins provided by the government school - Adarsh Hindi Vidyalaya – where her daughter studies and which were brought in by her daughter.
According to her, those napkins were not up to the mark and did not fulfil their actual purpose properly.
Radhika said, “This is because we cannot afford the high-priced pads and the ones that we get from the government school are very thin and causes itching. They don’t even provide these pads regularly.”
“We sometimes use pads and sometimes cloth, but most of the time its only cloth,” she added.
Periods still a taboo?
The high price of the sanitary pads is not the only reason that has been holding women back from using a napkin during their periods.
Age-old taboos related to menstruation have also prevented women from using sanitary pads and discussing about menstrual hygiene and other related issues out in the open. However, females living in well-to-do urban areas are slowly coming out and talking about it. But women in slum-like areas still feel shy when they hear the very word “menstruation.”
The women met by G Plus in the Bamunimaidan area were no different.
When asked about their preference, young girls aged about 13-14 years had a blush on their faces and ran inside their homes.
Sitting within the four walls of their homes, the girls and their respective mothers later said that they cannot talk about it openly and without inhibitions in front of their brothers/sons.
The women staying in Harijan Colony, Ulubari, have also been facing the same awkwardness as the women of the railway colony in Bamunimaidan.
Purnima Chettri (30), mother of two college-going boys, said, “We don’t talk about periods openly. I have always used cloth and have little knowledge about the kind of hygiene that needs to be maintained during periods. I can neither afford sanitary napkins nor talk about it. Moreover, there is no time for me to invest in my well-being because despite all the discomfort that comes with periods my work has to be done by me only.”
However, Meena Kaur, neighbour of Purnima in Harijan Colony, mentioned that one of her young relatives uses napkins provided by Child-Friendly Guwahati - a project launched by church bodies and civil society in Guwahati.
A lot of people from the civil society feel that bio-degradable pads could be a solution while addressing the issue of menstrual hygiene.
Prachi, founder and director of a Delhi-based NGO, Vyomini, said, “We manufacture bio-degradable pads and distribute them across Delhi including the underprivileged areas at an affordable price. For instance, we sell a pack with 6 pieces of napkins at Rs 20 to these people.”
Prachi also added that her NGO is considering coming to Guwahati to make people aware of bio-degradable pads.
