Bhopal: Menstrual hygiene has been the most underrated need of the era. Nevertheless, the corona virus lockdown has shifted a decent attention on the need of menstrual hygiene.
The National Health and Family Survey-2017 reported that only 37.6% of women use hygienic method for menstrual protection in Madhya Pradesh.
The rural MP displays a worse picture with only 26.4% women are aware of the hygienic methods of menstrual protection.
A study ‘Spot On’ by NGO Dasra reported that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities.
Many a social service organisation decided to reach out to the slums and distribute sanitary napkins to the women.
A city-based organisation called Manasa distributed at least 3,000 sanitary napkins in slum colonies across to help women who could not buy these monthly hygiene products during the lockdown.
Rolly Shivhare, a social worker working for the homeless and the needful during quarantined told Free Press that she has been distributing sanitary napkins along with food and ration.
Her team has distributed more than 3000 sanitary napkins among the homeless women and more than 1,500 napkins among the women labourers passing through Sukhi Sevaiyan and Bhopal bypass.
The lack of menstrual hygiene across the state is the reflection of lack of awareness among the women, added Shivhare.
The BMC additional commissioner Rajesh Rathod said the Nagar Nigam is planning to distribute at least 1 lakh sanitary napkins among the stranded women, women in quarantine centres and the girls at various care centres.
Goldie Saluja, an associate with the BMC said they have so far collected about 70,000 pads which are to be distributed among the women. The campaign may begin in a week or so, he added.
