WUNRN
MENSTRUATION – ECONOMIC IMPACT – EFFECT ON EDUCATION –
CHANGE SOCIAL NORMS BEYOND SHAME
Traditions around menstruation mean the majority of
Nepali girls miss days of school. Can education change beliefs?
Educating girls about periods encourages them to stay
in school Photograph: Graeme Robertson
“During our periods, we used to have to clean our
sleeping areas with leaves and weren’t allowed to enter the house,” says
12-year-old Sushila who lives in Gorkha district, central Nepal.
“Now, we can sleep in our beds. We must be open about menstruation.”
When Sushila first got her period, she had to stay
home from school for 11 days. She wasn’t allowed to touch books. Sushila’s
situation is common in much of Nepal: 95% of adolescent girls surveyed in the mid and
western regions practice some kind of restrictions during their periods, from
staying home from school or temple to having to sleep
outside.
Menstruation affects educational access across much of
the globe: more than 20% of girls in Sierra Leone miss school during
their periods; in Nepal and Afghanistan 30% do. Almost a quarter of Indian girls drop out of school when they start
menstruating and the ones that remain miss on average five days a month.
For some girls, the problem is as basic as toilet
access: only 45% of schools in the least developed countries
have them; in Nigeria there is one toilet for every 600 students. In other
contexts cultural stigma and the fear of leaks, lack of
knowledge, or lack of menstrual materials force girls to stay
home. In most places, it’s a combination these factors.
Compromised educations due to menstruation don’t only
affect adolescent girls; it impacts the whole community. A woman’s future earnings grow with every extra year of
primary education. When a girl receives education, she marries later, has
fewer, healthier children and is less likely to experience sexual violence.
It’s not just the girls and women who benefit. Wider
society and national economies can profit from better menstruation management.
With every 1% increase in the proportion of women with secondary education, a
country’s annual per capita income grows by 0.3%. Closing
the unemployment gap between adolescent girls and boys would result in an up to
1.2% increase in GDP in a year. Overall,
education has a tremendous impact on girls’ health, safety and livelihoods.
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Her Turn run workshops for girls to discuss the
life-changing effects of education and the barriers that can get in the way.
During the first week we cover health: sanitation, puberty, and menstrual
hygiene. The second week of the workshop is dedicated to safety issues which,
like child marriage, forces girls out of school. They
discuss human trafficking, sexual abuse, and other forms
of gender-based violence, laws, prevention and response mechanisms. During week
three the girls work on team building, developing confidence and leadership
skills. By the end of the fourth week they plan and implement a community
project: from toilet repair, to classroom upgrades, to emergency pad supplies.
These projects have had real impacts. One principal
told us he regretted not putting more effort into providing a safe environment
for young girls going through puberty. He also admitted gaps in knowledge of
other issues. “In my 24 years, bullying, sexual harassment, and menstruation
were never talked about formally with the students,” the principal said, now
committed to openly addressing these issues in his school.
The results of the programme so far have been
promising. In 2013, only 13% of girls we surveyed knew the legal age of
marriage; after taking our program, 92% did. Knowledge of menstrual hygiene
rose from 54% to 98%. And while before the workshop almost half of participants
reported it was okay for a man to hit his wife, after, 97% thought it was
unacceptable.
We also see knowledge transfer from participants to
their friends and families. Parents report changing hygiene practices in their
households. Mothers learn about menstrual health from their daughters. “I used
to worry a lot about the quantity of blood I lost during my period,” one mother
said. Her daughter showed her our Girls Guidebook, which explained normal blood
loss. “She showed me that I had nothing to worry about.”
We also see many challenges. As with other practices,
like child marriage or female genital mutilation, it
is often women who perpetuate menstrual restrictions. In some areas it is hard
to find a woman who would not share the belief in menstrual “impurity”. When
asked why she follows these rules, one trainer explained, “I don’t like
community people talking about my family.” Adolescent girls also tell us it is
the women in their communities who enforce these rules. “We don’t talk with men
about these things,” a 14-year-old student explained.
Changing social norms is rarely fast or easy and
menstrual practices are no exception. But girls like Sushila are changing them.
Moving forward, we are planning workshops to involve boys. We recognise that
just working with girls is not enough: to truly impact the gender dynamic, boys
must be agents of change too. Only a fully holistic approach can rid
communities of discriminatory social norms that turn a normal body function
into a shameful secret.