On Friday, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative
Council (WSSCC) and UN Women revealed that women and girls in Central and West
Africa lack access to clean water, private spaces for managing their
menstruation, and clean, functioning toilet facilities. In a series of studies,
developed within the Joint Programme on Gender, Hygiene and Sanitation in West
and Central Africa, researchers drew upon the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) prepared by the Open Working Group and the Secretary General’s Synthesis
Report on the Post-2015 development agenda. The studies provide critical
information about sociocultural taboos on menstrual hygiene and linked
knowledge and practices in the region in order to highlight an area of global
neglect with deleterious consequences for the education, mobility and economic
opportunity for women and girls, societies, and economies.
At an event hosted by the Permanent Missions of Singapore
and Senegal to the United Nations,
Government representatives, policymakers, researchers and development
practitioners articulated the need to talk about this neglected area in women’s
health and education- menstrual hygiene management. Informed by evidence from
Central and West Africa, South Asia and wider, the discussion took stock of the
gross neglect of this issue in awareness, policy, facilities and monitoring.
Key findings from the reports included:
· At present,
there are no public policies in West or Central Africa mentioning menstrual
hygiene management. Although women manage the water, sanitation and hygiene
services in their households and community and are key users as mothers and
caregivers, they are not consulted in the design and maintenance elements of
sanitation and water facilities. Since 2013, India’s sanitation policy and
guidelines include menstrual hygiene management as a key element of the
national campaign to achieve a clean India.
· A lack of
information, inadequate sanitary infrastructure and the persistence of certain
beliefs have a negative impact on girls’ education, on female health and on
women’s potential for economic empowerment. Half of all schools surveyed in the
Kedougou region of Senegal did not even have toilets and 96% of the women
surveyed said they did not regularly go to work while they were menstruating.
· The majority
of respondents in all regions surveyed said that toilets are the most common
places for the disposal of used menstrual pads or cloths due to the absence of
a waste management system.
· 90% of the
women and girls interviewed in Kedougou have undergone female genital
mutilations. Nearly a quarter of them reported infections during their
menstrual period, suggesting a link between this practice and increased
vulnerability to infections.
Key policy recommendations
from the event include the following:
· Member
states must break this silence, articulating menstrual needs in policies,
budgets, programmes and monitoring systems and calling upon the global
community to empower women and girls by guaranteeing safe menstrual hygiene
management.
· Menstruation
is an indicator of female health and vitality. Sexual and reproductive health
and rights advocacy and programmes must ensure knowledge, safe conditions and
dignity so that the trauma at puberty is replaced by pride and confidence.
· Citizens,
the media, schools and colleges, health practitioners, mothers and fathers must
talk about menstruation and enable safe, dignified management in order to
replace shame with pride.
· Safe spaces
for changing, cleaning and washing and drying at home, school, the market and
work must be ensured for women and girls everywhere. This means changing the
design, construction and maintenance of water, sanitation and hygiene
facilities to serve a human lifecycle by age, gender and physical ability.
· Half of
humanity is female. Women and girls menstruate as this enables them to have
babies and reproduce humanity itself.
The silence, taboos, and stigma linked to menstruation violates a host of
human rights.
Source: Email from Alison Bradley, WSSCC
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Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha
Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network India
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance, New York)
Tweet @ranjanpanda
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Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, ranjanpanda@yahoo.com
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
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