Unveiling Stigma: ADDRESSING MENSTRUAL HYGIENE AND HEALTH IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT

Understanding the importance of an individual's menstrual health is crucial to their well-being and that of their family and community. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, including India, societal norms, cultural practices, and institutional biases often hinder individuals from accessing the necessary menstrual health care. This persistent issue of inadequate menstrual health and hygiene management continues to be one of the most pressing development challenges today. Menstruation is a natural physiological process that occurs in adolescent girls, pre-menopausal women, transgender men, and non-binary individuals of reproductive age. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme in 2012 gave a broad definition of Menstrual Hygiene Management as: “Women and adolescent girls use hygienic materials to absorb or collect menstrual blood, which can be changed in privacy as often as necessary for the duration of a menstrual period, use soap and water for washing the body as required, and have access to safe and convenient materials to dispose of used materials. They understand the basic facts linked to the menstrual cycle and how to manage it with dignity and without discomfort or fear.” The process of menstruation requires the availability of resources for absorbing or collecting menstrual blood, promoting personal hygiene, and ensuring the proper disposal of waste, ideally in a private setting. This definition is widely used, and discussions around challenges of menstruation are restricted to hygiene issues; however, it needs to go beyond hygiene and include social and psychological components, the health impact of menstrual experience, and gender-diverse populations (Hennegan et al., 2021). A more inclusive definition is that menstrual health encompasses the physical, mental, and social well-being throughout the menstrual cycle of women, girls, and all other individuals who menstruate. It involves access to accurate information, supportive hygiene practices, timely care for discomforts, a stigma-free environment, and the freedom to participate fully in all aspects of life without discrimination or violence (Hennegan et al., 2021). So, it becomes necessary to understand where India stands on various aspects related to menstrual health and hygiene and identify places that require attention. On those lines, this paper explores data on the usage of menstrual products using National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data, the challenges and intersections of maintaining menstrual health and hygiene, menstrual waste management, what India is doing to address the challenges, international perspectives, and the way forward.