''Have they come all this way to talk about period poverty?” – there is no doubt that most of women who were present, displayed a confusion mixed with curiosity through their faces. And that is reasonable as we live in a society where hundreds of Women’s Days were celebrated but failed to converse about 'Period Poverty' amongst rural women and rural school girls, at least as a sub topic of a broader conversation. We live in a land where no research has ever been conducted on ‘eliminating Period Poverty’, in a time it is being identified as a solid factor of child poverty and rural poverty everywhere in the world.
‘Have you ever used a commercial sanitary pad in your life?’ – when you ask this question from a girl child from Killinochchi, most will respond that they have not used them in their entire life. You might even meet people who have not seen any, ever. The majority will tell you that they feel embarrassed to buy them from a local store and therefore they attempt to cover up their embarrassment with an unhygienic piece of cloth and refrain from attending school in fear of that disgraceful blood stain on the white school attire. A helpless child mother will murmur, grinding a small hole in the ground with a toe will tell you that she had to quit schooling soon after her puberty. A girl from a poverty-stricken line-room in NuwaraEliya will tell you that she was kept in a corner of the house by her parents who thought that she ‘must pay for being born a girl’.
An unmarked turning point in Rural Poverty
According to the last survey conducted in Sri Lanka by the government on (2006 – 2007), rural and plantation community constitutes the majority of the poverty-stricken population in Sri Lanka. Of all people in Sri Lanka affected by poverty, the majority which is equivalent to 82%, suffer from rural poverty. (See the report on Household Income and Expenditure by the Department of Census and Statistics)
It is no doubt that many forms of services have, nationally and internationally, executed projects worth of billions of dollars to eradicate rural poverty. Nonetheless, have the true root-causes for poverty been addressed until today? Have we as a country identified what to do? At least in this country, has the ‘authentic data’ about rural people’s per capita income or purchasing power been gathered? As we go beyond that point, are we cordial enough to admit the fact that the poverty amongst rural women, who are being celebrated as the lifeline of the country and mothers of our generation, is started since her puberty? Are we open-minded to accept that? No person has endeavoured to ascertain the number of absent-s marked in the registration book on the following day of monthly menstruation. Forget about making necessary facilities available for girl children within schools, at least so far no research or survey has been carried out focusing on psychological discomfort they are subjected to within mixed schools. The exact same question remained even when Nelumyaya Foundation, for the very first time in Sri Lanka, introduced a reusable, environmental-friendly sanitary pad for free for rural women living in Polonnaruwa, the largest district of Sri Lanka.
An environmental reality, from Point Pedro to Dondra
Nelumyaya Foundation inaugurated the pilot project of this island-wide program on 11th March. Various representations from the bottom of poverty, starting from child mothers, women activists from villages from Ganan Golla to Bowatta, women from various social strata including school teachers and school girls, more than 60 participants attended it.
They had designed a special program to gather authentic data on period poverty in grass root level. What more appealing was, the extremely realistic explanation given by them on ways the environment is damaged by commercial sanitary pads. It must be stated that it is one of the ground realities which had not received the attention of any researcher or policy maker so far in Sri Lanka.
Under general circumstances, a woman has to live 30 years of her life enduring the effects of menstruation. During that period, if her economic status is strong enough to afford commercial sanitary pads, she has to use at least 2 packets of sanitary pads which is approximately equivalent to 10 – 20 sanitary pads. So the number of sanitary pads she would use in 30 years amounts to 9000. Even when women belonging to a single family taken into account, the number of sanitary pads a single village would have disposed during a lifetime would be hundreds of thousands. In the whole country, that would be millions of tons.
To be clearer, it is adequate to acquire a rudimentary idea about the contents or composition of a commercial sanitary pad. Plastic is always included in it. Its outer layer is made of a type of plastic which is very thin and difficult to decompose. Has Sri Lanka, as a country that has taken action to ban undecaying plastic completely, given a single thought about this? Apart from that commercial sanitary pads consist of adhesives, chlorine as bleaching, synthetic polymers to maximize absorption and also, silicone. According to certain experiments done in some countries in the world, insecticides too have been found in commercial sanitary pads.
Where will they be ultimately thrown away to? As we are all aware, within the commercial sanitary pads market, there is no proper method to dispose of them. The main ‘slogan’ used in the commercial sanitary pads industry is ‘easy use and ability to throw away after used once’. However, in India, there are small burners for the purpose of disposing of used sanitary pads. But eventually, burning of used sanitary pads releases aforementioned pollutants which consequently pollute the atmosphere. In other instances, those pollutants automatically mix with the natural environment. As reported in Sri Lanka once, the main practical cause of blockage of sewers is disposable commercial sanitary pads.It is no wonder when they don’t have proper means to dispose of used pads at school, workplace or home. So those pads will eventually be piled up somewhere on the earth, creating ‘garbage mountains’. Should we be really comparing the weight of the garbage mountains with the ‘sin of being born a woman’? We are all aware of the fact that, that is what has been happening thus far in this country. At least women who love the environment and much-loved mothers who give birth to our generation must take a stance to avert this great environmental catastrophe.
Did you know that it takes at least 400 years for sanitary pads to gradually decompose and eventually completely vanish from the environment? That is a serious concern that should receive the attention of all those who love environment.
Sanitation with an unhygienic piece of cloth?
Let us next explore what the modern alternatives are for rural woman and girls who cannot afford the price of commercial sanitary pads. It clearly is a piece of cloth. As described by women who expressed their experiences during the program, more than half of women population living in rural areas use pieces of cloth during the menstruation period. One woman who attended the program stated that when she has her period, she is using a piece of an old sarong worn by her husband. Sometimes it’s a piece of a discoloured cotton cloth; sometimes it’s a piece of an old chintz cloth. Most of the times, it’s a discarded or unusable piece of cloth.
A unique approach
The Nelumyaya Foundation took a unique approach for this good-hearted endeavour themed ‘Nature’s Daughters for Mother Nature’. What they did was introducing an environmental friendly, modern world friendly, reusable cloth menstrual pad. It can be easily carried even in school, home or just anywhere with no nervousness whatsoever and is super environmental friendly, since it comes stored in an environmental friendly container which is more or less similar to a purse. We, as journalists, were able to witness women carrying it freely with their other goods such as umbrellas and handbags after the program.
The two main sessions of the program were conducted by a couple of well-known activists of Sri Lanka, who represent a different generation. Lawyer and journalist Radika Gunarathna and Sociologist Thushara Manoj are facilitators and trainers as well as public speakers and activists on gender and human rights. Mr.Thushara Manoj delivered an interesting lecture on societal restraints and taboos associated with menstruation and the crisis of gender & sexuality in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, Lawyer Radika Gunarathna, who manages this program in Sri Lanka, explained potential environmental risks of current usage of sanitary products and further emphasized the need of opting for environmental friendly, reusable alternatives as a social and economic right with her session themed ‘for the pocket, for convenience and for the environment’.
This program, which was implemented in coordination with Nelumyaya Foundation's London Office, introduces a highly standardized, eco-friendly, reusable alternative as a product of their ongoing research. The program was sponsored by State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) and Romali De Silva Memorial Foundation.
The name Romali De Silva, is hardly a forgettable name for wakeful Sri Lankans and certainly not a name that should be forgotten. 24 year old Romali De Silva, was a gorgeous young girl who suffered an untimely death at a famous private hospital in Sri Lanka, under a very debatable circumstance. She dedicated a large part of her short lifetime for social welfare. Her parents have established a memorial fund in her name, to carry her name and legacy forward and to contribute to social welfare. Grassroots level awareness raising programs which aim at dengue prevention, inaugurated by The Nelumyaya Foundation as part of the above-mentioned progressive endeavour.
It is our understanding that The Nelumyaya Foundation, by bringing forward ‘period poverty’ as a completely separate topic, is essentially performing a huge and a very serious duty which should ideally be done by a coalition of several ministries of Sri Lanka.
The nation must extend its gratitude to The Nelumyaya Foundation for bringing forward a unique and authentic solution for a particular issue which has never addressed so far and for initiating an open discourse about crucial effects of period poverty. This didn’t stop there; the discussion they created for the first time in Sri Lanka, goes further to disclose la arge-scaled environmental damage done by commercial sanitary pads available in the market as well. Everyone’s attention must be drawn to the attempt they make in a very challenging local context.
The Nelumyaya Foundation looks forward to continue this programme island-wide.
-Deepaka Wijesurendra | Photography – Ajith Senevirathna
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