‘Menstrual hygiene’ initiative shows successful

BANGALORE: ‘An initiative to guide girls on menstrual hygiene’ an awareness initiative by TNIE, dated October 20, 2010 has borne fruitful results.

“The survey conducted in 10 schools revealed that students and teachers alike felt the need to be well equipped to handle  menstruation with confidence. They expressed their wish to know more about menstrual hygiene management through awareness  programmes” said Namita Rao, of IL & FS-ETS.

Through the survey it was found that 30-40 per cent of the respondents across this age-group were found to be deficient in this area and needed change in practices and attitudes towards menstrual hygiene.

About 10 per cent observed seclusion in their family, where they were asked to sit outside the house and 62 percent girls observed abstinence from school is followed by some due to poor infrastructure in school i.e, lack of rest rooms, running water and so on.

Most of the respondents felt that  change in attitude and  practices must be supported with adequate infrastructure and facilities.

“We have trained 390 master trainers who will train 900 teachers, 40 per cent  of male teachers were initially hesitant to teach students on menstrual hygiene,”said Santosh R, programme officer, centre for  environment education.

The aim was to reach out to 1000 schools includes KGBVs and Model Cluster schools.

“Program has already been implemented in 600  schools, and it is on going program in the other schools. We realised that there has been a lot of demands not only from schools, but  also communities have asked us to educate them” said HB Chandra Shekhar, Programme officer, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Students are given self help books like ‘Don’t get Scared’ and  ‘Sharing Simple facts’ said Shekhar.