September 05, 2017

Enough with period shaming. Girls’ lives matter

located:	Uganda, India
editor:	Bob Koigi

The recent suicide of a young Indian girl who was humiliated by her teacher over a blood stain in her cloth from menstruation has unveiled the painful reality of the harrowing experiences millions of girls across the world have to contend with during their periods.

The Indian girl was given a duster cloth by her teacher to use as a sanitary pad before being ordered to stand outside her classroom even as lessons continued. She killed herself the next day.

Millions of girls especially in Africa have had to bear humiliation, mockery and ridicule during their menses, a practice that has seen a worryingly number of them drop out of school leading to forced marriages and early pregnancies.

Indeed one in 10 African school girls misses school during their menstruation totaling to about 60 learning days a year according to the United Nations. In Rwanda girls miss up to 50 days of school or work each year when in their periods.

It is even harrowing for girls in rural areas whose parents cannot afford the pads, forcing them to resort to using old rags, socks, plastic, paper and even grass which puts their health in more danger.

Yet at this time and age a normal biological process should not be allowed to make innocent girls curse their very existence.

It is laudable for governments in Africa that have taken the active role of ensuring every needy girl has easy access to the sanitary pads. A case in point is Kenya that recently introduced a law that ensures that every teenage girl at public schools countrywide can access the pads anytime. Zambia has also been at the driver’s seat of this initiative with an eye on school girls in rural and semi-rural areas. Indeed such a sensitive matter shouldn’t be left to government alone. That is why the startups in Africa who have come up with innovative ways of making reusable and cheaper pads for girls with a view to providing a permanent solution to this problem deserves a pat in the back. From Uganda’s reusable pads made from waste paper and papyrus, to Kenya’s sugarcane and Nigeria’s banana leaves pads, the entrepreneurs are tapping into readily available local products and their interventions are working all for the sake of the girl child.

To restore the dignity of the African girl child and foster gender parity, period shaming should be condemned harshly and the world should work to ensure girls have a safe, dignified and clean environment that allows their biological process to happen without feeling humiliated or ostracized.