60% Women Feel Schools Lack Adequate Menstrual Hygiene Facilities: Survey

Schools in India must develop better awareness and infrastructure for periods, shows 5th Annual Everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey

More than 51% women respondents say Indian schools do not have a proper system to prepare teen and adolescent girls regarding the onset of menstrual periods and nearly 60% women feel schools lack adequate facilities for girls to change and dispose of the sanitary pads. This was revealed by the 5th Edition of Everteen Annual Menstrual Hygiene Survey.

Conducted ahead of the Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020 on May 28, the everteen menstrual hygiene survey was conducted among nearly 7000 Indian women participating from various cities of India including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

Over 51% women respondents claimed that Indian schools do not have adequate systems to educate or mentally prepare teen and adolescent girls regarding the onset of menstrual periods. More than 95% women asserted that Indian school system should have some awareness programs to prepare girls on the subject.

The everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey also revealed that during adolescence, nearly 60% women did not have any prior knowledge about menstrual periods. In fact, as many as 38% women had first misinterpreted it as an injury or disease.

In terms of infrastructure, almost 59% women felt that schools do not have adequate cleanliness of public toilets or facilities for girls to change and dispose sanitary pads off.

Chirag Pan, CEO, PAN Healthcare, says, “Menstrual hygiene and wellness have been known issues in the Indian context. While there has been progress in recent years, it is imperative that we leverage our strength in the Indian value-based systems and inculcate the importance of good menstrual hygiene from the onset of puberty itself. Schools can and must play a pivotal role in bringing this paradigm shift through classroom education, awareness programs and focused infrastructure development.”

Wet And Dry Personal Care Pvt Ltd, the company that owns everteen feminine hygiene brand, is a subsidiary of PAN Healthcare.

In workspaces too, 41% of women felt their office needed better cleanliness and facilities to change and dispose the sanitary pads off in toilets.

The everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey 2020 also suggests that the role that doctors can play in preventing gynaecological problems is significantly downplayed due to the shame and guilt associated with menstrual cycles in Indian context.

More than 50% of women said they have had some gynaecological infection or problem such as UTI, rashes, foul smell or itching during or after menstrual cycle in the past one year. Among these, 20% of women had such issues more than 3 times during the year.

More than 64% of women have faced irregularities in their period dates, out of which half have had to deal with it more than 3 times in a year.

Ironically, only 37% of women said they consult a doctor in the case of irregular periods, whereas 32% prefer to discuss it within the family and 30% just ignore it.

Similarly, more than 54% of women have had white discharge, but only 25% prefer to consult a doctor.

As many as 56% women believe that menstruation is still perceived as a taboo in Indian society.

Not surprisingly, then, more than 42% of women felt uncomfortable buying sanitary essentials from a shop or a chemist, especially when there were several other customers.

Because of the guilt associated with the menstrual cycle, 87% of women admitted that they had to hide or secretly take their sanitary product for changing.

Interestingly, more than three-fourths of the respondents said that menstruation would not have been such a taboo subject in the society if men had it too!

Another key revelation from the survey shows that 53% of women have used a public toilet more than 3 times at the office, mall or cinema hall to change sanitary product.

“Our everteen survey shows that 75% of women feel uncomfortable having to use public toilets to change sanitary products. Yet, more than 93% of women still use sanitary napkins. By switching to better, modern-age menstrual hygiene methods (MHM) such as menstrual cups, women can reduce the number of times they have to change their sanitary product in a day. Many women have told us that using menstrual cups has greatly reduced their daily discomfort due to periods,” said Hariom Tyagi, CEO, Wet and Dry Personal Care.

The survey revealed that menstrual cups are now being used by 4% of the women, and their adoption has overtaken tampons by almost double.

One of the alarming trends that emerged from the survey shows that more than one-third of women said they have used a pill or some other method to delay periods in case of an important occasion.

As an industry leader in feminine intimate hygiene, everteen has been keeping a pulse of the evolving menstrual hygiene trends in India through its annual surveys since 2014.

It has played a crucial role in creating widespread awareness through campaigns such as #FixYourPeriods.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, everteen launched #SheNeedsPad, a social initiative to distribute free sanitary napkins among women in need at their doorsteps all over India.

Everteen offers more than 30 different intimate hygiene and wellness products for women including sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups, bikini line hair remover crème, intimate wash, intimate wipes, toilet seat sanitizer, menopausal relief capsules and more.

Its products have been shipped to customers in countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, US, UK, Vietnam, and several African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.

Everteen is also a partner of the global Menstrual Hygiene Day, a global platform supported by organizations like UNICEF and USAID to raise awareness about the challenges faced by women and girls worldwide due to menstruation, and highlight solutions to address such challenges.

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Disclaimer: This is an unpaid press release by PAN Healthcare. Readers’ discretion is advised while consuming the content of the release.