Does Menstrual Hygiene Management in Urban Slums Need a Different Lens? Challenges Faced by Women and Girls in Jaipur and Delhi

Abstract

For the first time since Independence, India’s urban population has registered a higher increase than the rural population. Increasing urbanbiased economic activity and job creation are leading to rapid urbanisation, and a greater number of poor people today are living in cities and towns in India. Slums, often the residence of migrants and urban poor, are underserved areas with poor housing, insufficient living space, basic infrastructure and services such as clean drinking water, drainage and electricity, and poor access to toilets and sanitation services. Urban poverty and life in slums significantly compromise the ability of women and girls to effectively manage menstruation. There are many factors that affect how women manage their monthly period, such as the lack of information and awareness on menstruation, unaffordability of menstrual products, poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure and services, lack of privacy, safety and security. This article seeks to highlight the challenges faced in managing menstruation in the context of a slum/poor urban settlement and the need for a convergent and comprehensive approach involving key stakeholders including communities, civil society and government departments to ensure gender-sensitive, menstrual hygiene management-centric interventions.

Menstrual Hygiene Practices of Adolescent Girls in Rural Maharashtra

“…Lack of knowledge, embarrassment and social taboos affect adolescent girls. Menstrual hygiene practices are influenced by cultural and religious beliefs, parental influence, economic status and socioeconomic pressures and these often act as barriers to good hygiene (Chakravarthy et al, 2019; Kaur et al, 2018; Mishra & Prakash, 2019). We observed that low literacy rates and lower awareness were associated with taboos and restrictions.…”

Drivers of menstrual material disposal and washing practices: A systematic review

“…Where the physical state of WASH infrastructure was mentioned, it related to the quantity of available and physically functional toilets/latrines [22,26,28,32,33,37,40,44,46,58,63,73,75,76,78,81,86,87,89,91], the design of toilets/latrines [32,37,40,44,48,51,57,63,64,68,71,73,75,81,83,87,90,97], the quality and availability of running water in and around toilets or latrines [18,20,31,33,37,39,40,45,46,48,49,…”

“…availability of soap for washing [20,33,49,53,54,[56][57][58]60,61,63,64,66,67,73,77,90,91] and the availability of a physically functional disposal mechanism and/or service for used material [18,28,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]42,[44][45][46][47][48]52,53,57,58,60,62,63,[66][67][68]71,76,77,82,83,86,90,91,…”

“…Social perceptions of appropriate infrastructure were driven by the presence or absence of a private/safe space for managing menstruation [28,34,36,37,39,40,[44][45][46]48,[51][52][53][54]57,60,63,64,[66][67][68][69]71,74,76,80,81,83,87,[89][90][91][92]96], the cleanliness and maintenance of the facility [25][26][27][28]31,33,36,37,40,43,44,46,48,53,57,63,…”

“…In 14 of the studies menstruators explicitly stated that they had been given no, or limited, advice regarding how to dispose of menstrual materials [21,24,28,30,37,45,64,74,78,81,83]. However, menstruators also stated they chose their method of disposal to limit environmental harm [55], or not cause detrimental harm to infrastructure systems [83] (e.g., disposable pads blocking flush systems).…”