The National Family Health Survey 2019-21 found that more than 25% of women in rural areas still do not use hygienic menstrual products. While the situation is steadily improving (close to 90% of urban women and 70% of rural women between 15-24 years of age claim to use hygienic period products today), there is still a long way to go, and policy has a key role to play.
Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released the Draft National Menstrual Hygiene Policy, 2023 for public comments.
Public consultation on such an important, sensitive and widely impactful issue is essential to create a truly inclusive and fruitful policy. Now, it is our turn our citizens to provide the government with our valuable inputs. However, the last date to provide our feedback is only October 30th, 2023!
With barely any visibility given to this draft policy by the government, most citizens are unaware and may not provide feedback. We at Civis are trying to bridge this gap by publicizing the consultation and helping facilitate the consultation process.
This article attempts to distil the key elements of the policy, provide additional context and information to help you respond to the government better, and have them know how much we as citizens, care about the rights of our menstruators!
What Does the Policy Say?
The draft policy mainly sets out long-term goals and objectives and the overarching principles to achieve them.
The draft policy points out a few things to work directly related to menstruators:
- Affordability of period products, especially for lower-income and marginalized groups. They suggest specific ways to do so, including having supply chains and distribution networks to ensure consistent access, having a public procurement system, having innovative schemes like Suvidha Sarathi that allow donors to make contributions of sanitary napkins to senior secondary students directly,
- Setting standards for period products to ensure safety and effectiveness.
- The standards are supposed to govern the product composition, absorbency, manufacturing processes, and labelling requirements.
- Safe disposal of period products (e.g., having separate closed bins) and access to soap and water for handwashing after disposal. These are specially required in places other than homes, like offices, schools, colleges, public spaces, etc.
- Menstrual education to address myths, taboos, misconceptions and stigma.
Setting up Menstrual Hygiene Committees
The draft policy says Menstrual Hygiene Committees will be set up at the National, State and District Levels.
At the national level: They will set up guidelines finalize policy, and review national-level implementation.
At the state level: Guidelines will be tweaked to the state’s goals and needs, and they will coordinate implementation between various actors
At the district level: They will undertake the distribution of period products, conduct awareness campaigns and oversee district-level implementation.
The Actors and the Beneficiaries
The draft policy also attempts to identify the stakeholders of the policy- those who benefit from the policy (beneficiaries), as well as those who have to act in order to see the policy to fruition (actors).
Beneficiaries: The policy highlights humanitarian crises when menstrual health often amplifies existing inequalities.
Vulnerable groups include persons with disabilities, for whom information on menstrual hygiene needs to be made in accessible formats.
Actors: These include:
Central ministries including health, sanitation, women and child development, environment, education, etc.), State departments, Private companies that could develop affordable period products, NGOs, etc.
While the policy has several merits, there are some additional things to keep in mind:
This is a policy document, i.e. a roadmap for various actors to use to take action. As this is not a law, none of the goals, objectives and principles of the document are mandatory for the actors to undertake.
Public health is a subject in the state list according to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. This essentially means that each state may set up their own policies and regulations based on its residents’ requirements, goals, capacity, etc. A national policy may only be a blueprint for such action.
How Does This Policy Impact You and Why Should You Care
A menstrual hygiene policy directly impacts at least 50% of the population, i.e. the estimated number of menstruators in the country. However, even if the policy does not directly affect you, it most likely affects the lives of your family, friends and immediate company.
More importantly, menstrual health should not just be a gendered subject. A very clear link has been seen between menstrual education and reduced stigma. A key part of this is having everyone, i.e. both menstruators and nd non-menstruators, learn and have open conversations about menstruation. Participation by all also reduces the unscientific beliefs and taboos around menstruation, often held because of a lack of understanding of the issue, like hiding period products from the public eye, non-entry of women in kitchens and temples during their menstrual period, etc. And there is ample evidence that this is not just a rural issue. By engaging with this draft policy, you can help make menstruation a safer, more inclusive and dignified process across the country.
How Can You Participate?
With these key pointers, we hope you are able to learn more about the Draft National Menstrual Hygiene Policy, 2023. You can provide your feedback based on the merits of the policy as well as your input from your personal experience of being or knowing a menstruator and their needs.
The draft policy is open for feedback at civis.vote. You can also send in your feedback via WhatsApp by sending the message 'period' on Civis' number 8976926914 or click on this link to start the conversation.
Go make your voice count today, active citizen!
Mallika Dandekar is the Consultatio Fellow 2023 at Civis.vote, a civic-tech non-profit initiative that works to build dialogue between governments and citizens in India's laws, using technology to bridge the gap between the two.
Civis' flagship initiative, Consultatio Fellowship 2023, is supported by Manupatra.