Fight for period friendly Bangladesh 

One massage, billions of voices and change-making process. May 28 is the day for menstrual hygiene. We're trying to end the stigma attached to periods, break the taboo around them, and increase awareness of the significance of menstrual hygiene for women, girls, and people who menstruate globally on Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2024.

The annual Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed on May 28. This is an opportunity to draw attention to the significance of period care and to the problems faced by individuals who lack access to menstruation products. Anybody who menstruates must have access to menstrual products, clean, safe areas to use them, and the freedom to control their period without guilt or stigma.

Menstrual Hygiene Day 2024 has `Together for a Period-Friendly world’ as its theme. The stigma and taboos around menstruation are a thing of the past in a period-friendly world. Now we have to fight for a period-friendly world.

The World Health Organisation/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program 2012 defines menstrual hygiene management as: "Women and adolescent girls are using a clean menstrual management material to absorb or collect menstrual blood, that can be changed in privacy as often as necessary. Using soap and water for body washing as required and having access to safe and convenient facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials." They are aware of the fundamental information about the menstrual cycle and know how to handle it dignifiedly, comfortably, and fearlessly.

The challenges facing girls, women and other people at risk go beyond a lack of resources and infrastructure. Menstruation is a normal and healthy part of life for most women and girls, but in many societies, the experience of menstruating women is still complicated by sacred and social norms. As a result, lack of information about menstruation can lead to negative and harmful menstrual practices, misconceptions and negative attitudes, which can lead to shame, bullying and even gender-based violence. For generations of girls and women, poor menstrual health and hygiene exacerbate social and economic inequalities and negatively affect education, health, security and human development.

National Menstrual Hygiene Management Strategy 2021 indicates that we need to work on building knowledge and skills for awareness towards behavior changes; Inclusive and well-designed WASH facilities; safe disposals; positive social norms; health services; involvement of men and boys; policy, guidance and standard operating procedures; prepare significant activities; reviewed and revised educational curriculum for formal and non-formal education; orientation of the women/mothers/men/fathers; MHM sessions in youth/adolescent clubs; available, affordable, accessible, sustainable, qualified menstrual products; gender equality; political will; capacity building for teachers, health professionals, community health workers, religious leaders, Small and medium sized enterprises; Online MHM information and Knowledge Hub Connecting the private sector by strategic direction for menstrual products, WASH materials, Menstrual products disposals, construction of WASH facilities, capacity building; Guiding the stakeholders by strategic direction, developing strategic materials, Advocacy,  Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and reporting; Achieving coordination and collaboration by rationale strategic direction, MHM activities, support systems, decentralisation, composition of the national MHM committee; governance.  

According to the World Bank, a survey in Bangladesh found that only 6 percent of schools provide education on health and hygiene, and only 36 percent of girls had prior knowledge about menstruation before their first period (2017)’.

According to UNICEF; Every month, 1.8 billion people around the world suffer from depression. Millions of girls, women, transgender men, and non-binary people are unable to manage their transitions in a dignified and healthy way. Menstrual health needs may go unmet due to gender disparities, cultural norms and poverty.

According to current knowledge and policy gaps in menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls in Bangladesh by Shusmita Khan, Kanta Jamil, Quamrun Nahar, Anadil Alam (October 2022; icddr,b); `Over 85% of adolescent girls aged 15–19, regardless of their marital status, agreed with the following BAHWS 2019 statement: “Menstrual blood is impure.” Over half of them (ever-married 59%, unmarried 53%) agreed with: “One cannot do physical activity during menstruation.” Female adolescents living in rural areas are more likely to have misconceptions than their urban counterparts.'

Although the use of disposable products (62% ever married vs 66% unmarried) or clean reusable materials (51% ever married vs 57% unmarried) was high among adolescent girls, only 9% of ever-married and 12% of unmarried adolescent girls practiced proper menstrual hygiene.

Based on a mapping of the national MHM platform in Bangladesh, 18 organisations reported implementing 51 interventions covering 27 districts around the country aimed at improving MHM. However, except for four interventions, all projects lasted less than one year. Further exploration indicates that 89% of the interventions had components of educating boys on MHM, while 63% provided training on MHM to girls. Around half (51%) of the interventions included awareness-raising components and a little over one-third (36%) distributed products to maintain menstrual hygiene. About one-fifth of the interventions focused on MHM product development (22%) and policy reformation (19%).

According to world Economic Forum, educating all children about menstruation in schools will help reduce the stigma around menstruation and improve the education and health of young people. In low-income countries, improving school toilets and washing facilities can reduce girls' dropout rates, the World Bank says. The sixth goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Program is to "ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all". Increasing access to ecological hygiene products is another area of focus. According to the World Bank, the benefits for governments and all of us who invest in this sector are better health and better economic potential for women and girls.

Now, we need to focus on the National Menstrual Hygiene Management Strategy 2021. It is imperative to follow these strategies deliberately. Therefore, some recommendations to adequately address menstrual health in Bangladesh are set out below based on the above findings.
Generate new policies that address menstrual health in an all-inclusive manner.

Take a look at the gender dynamics of menstrual cycles.

Empower women and girls for making decisions to choose menstrual needs, products, health issues.

Sensitise men, boys, religious leaders and local communities.

Engage private sectors and corporate bodies.

Impart specific messages on menstruation to media.

Remove the tax on all menstrual products.

The writer is a communications specialist, development worker and Managing Partner, PSDI Consultancy. He could be reached at: [email protected].