DISABILITY & BARRIERS TO FEMININE HYGIENE
Context
MHHM-Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management have brought awareness, enhanced access to female-friendly appropriate sanitation facilities and availability of menstrual products, in particular, sanitary pads are some of the outcomes of this progress.
Girls and women with disabilities face an exceptional burden on account of the intersections between gender and disability.
KEY POINTS
- Nearly 27 million persons in India are disabled.
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 provides equal rights to disabled persons with other persons.
- The 2016 Act, recognized that reproductive rights are even neglected or disregarded in disabled women and children.
- Girls and women with disabilities from poor households and marginalized communities, bear a triple burden that exacerbates their vulnerabilities.
- Misconceptions about the reproductive anatomy and abilities of persons with disability are considered as asexual, unsuitable for marriage and incapable of having and raising children.
- Access to sexual and reproductive health information and services is compromised because of social and physical barriers.
- Many field studies reveal compromised menstrual health, a basic physiological aspect of sexual and reproductive health among persons with disability.
- Majority of people with gender diversities consider menstruators and menstrual blood to be impure or dirty.
- Constraints imposed by limited mobility, cognitive capacities and self-care pose greater challenges for disabled girls and women.
| Economic and structural factors create additional hurdles to hygiene management, good health, and health-seeking behaviours. |
- The United Nations Population Fund and Wateraid India are working together to understand the key challenges and constraints faced by disabled women regarding menstrual health.
- Accessible and adapted information, education and communication on menstrual health and hygiene based on their differential needs and capacities and an enabling socio-cultural environment.
- Tactile models accompanied by audio explanations can help people with visual impairment, whereas the same models accompanied by materials with clear step-by-step visuals are useful for people with hearing impairments.
- Fewer than two-thirds of disabled women aged between 15-24, use hygienic menstrual protection methods(National Family Health Survey 2019-2020).
- Persons with intellectual impairments are highly sensitive to materials and may require those that are soft to touch and cause less irritation.
- Persons with mobility restrictions require products that can be worn for longer as changing them frequently pose a challenge.
- Accessible designs of sanitation liquids, for diverse needs exist and have been created in rural and urban contexts in India.
- Caregivers from families and institutions are vital for disability-focused interventions.
Conclusion
- There is a need to incorporate a disability-inclusive approach within menstrual health and hygiene work.
- Irrespective of gender, every menstruating person has the right to menstrual health.
- India has made significant progress busting stigmas around menstrual health and expanding access to hygiene products.
