Menstrual hygiene management: Call for establishing girl-friendly toilets at public places

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a consultative dialogue on Monday underlined the need for creating awareness about menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and establishing dedicated girl-friendly toilets in workplaces, educational institutions and public places.

WaterAid Pakistan had organised the dialogue on the integration of menstrual hygiene management and government policies and plans.

The participants spoke about MHM and government policies and made suggestions for addressing issues related to women’s health.

Representatives from the public and private sector, civil society, media and academia attended the event.

Munawwar Hassan, head of programmes WaterAid, presented the current situation of MHM provisions in various policies of Education, Health, Women Development, Youth, Public Health Engineering and Local Government departments.

He said that out of 11 policies and plans reviewed, only one had an express mention of MHM while other policies and plans either did not consider this an important issue to be included in the policies and plans or mention it implicitly within other provisions e.g. gender mainstreaming or enabling environment for women.

“WaterAid recommends that all the new policies formed or existing ones should properly include the provision of MHM services in institutions, schools and workspaces, and launch mass awareness programmes to change the existing mindset,” Munawwar Hassan said.

He added that menstruation was one of the key hurdles to women’s social development and should be tackled on priority. He said the government should allocate adequate resources for its existing policy commitments on MHM.

On the occasion, the participants shared their experiences and welcomed the efforts to sensitize the government on this important issue of women and girls’ health and dignity.

They said that the Local Government Department was leading on MHM Working Group in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and lately have organised trainings of trainers for the education and social welfare departments.

The participants asked the parliamentarians to prioritize the provision of MHM facilities at institutions and workplaces for women and girls.

They said that lawmakers should launch awareness campaigns within cultural boundaries to tackle taboos and myths attached to the natural process of menstruation and promote its hygienic management.

The group recommended that MHM should be integrated into the policies and plans of each department, where women work, study or visit for any purpose. Government should ensure appropriate resource allocation for its policy commitments on MHM so that the policies are implemented in letter and spirit.

WaterAid is an international organisation whose mission is to transform the lives of the poor and marginalized people by improving access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

One woman participant representing the government sector complained about the lack of separate toilets for females at the workplaces. “Like other working women, I do drink very little water during my seven hours stay in the office as there is no separate toilet in the office. In fact, there is a need for creating awareness among the men so they can understand women issues related to menstrual hygiene management,” she said.

She said the government must appoint female engineers in the Public Health Engineering Department so they can give their input in planning for women.

The participants said that toilets at most of the schools for girls lacked running water, which was the major reason for the dropouts.

In Pakistan, they said one-third of the girls’ schools lacked toilets. The WaterAid has established girl-friendly toilets at schools in Islamabad.