Angela Onwuzoo
Leading maternal health experts and women’s rights advocates have called on the Federal Government to come up with a policy to subsidise the cost of sanitary pads and make them free for schoolgirls in the country.
The stakeholders said the economic hardship and rising inflation in the country had made sanitary pads unaffordable for many girls.
They noted that by making menstrual products free or affordable and ensuring wider access to safe sanitation facilities in schools and workplaces, the country can put a stop to period poverty.
The United Nations Population Fund described period poverty as the struggle many low-income women and girls face while trying to afford menstrual products.
The stakeholders including the United Nations Women spoke in commemoration of this year’s World Menstrual Hygiene Day with the theme, “Together for a #PeriodFriendlyWorld.”
World Menstrual Hygiene Day, observed annually on May 28, is a global initiative aimed at breaking the silence and raising awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management.
Experts say menstruation (also called a “period”) is a normal biological process experienced by millions around the world each month. This happens when the uterus sheds blood and tissue from the uterine lining and leaves your body through the vagina.
UNFPA states that a woman menstruates for an average of 2,535 days in her lifetime or almost seven years out of 39 (Five days per 28-day cycle).
A renowned Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, with over 40 years of experience in healthcare delivery and development work, Oladapo Ladipo, told PUNCH Healthwise in an exclusive interview that many teenage girls have resorted to using unsanitary materials to observe their menstruation due to the high cost of sanitary pads.
Ladipo, who is the co-founder of the Association for Reproductive and Family noted that the use of a sanitary pad is ideal for menstruation.
The gynaecologist said, “Since people are not able to buy sanitary pads because of poverty, the government should subsidise the cost and also make them free for young adolescent girls in schools.
” Fortunately we have a new Minister of Health now who is very dynamic and I think the Federal Government is pro-health.
“ So we hope that there will be a possible response to our recommendations to them. They are partnering with stakeholders and they have listening ears.”
The maternal health expert warned that girls using clothes and tissue paper for menstruation were at risk of infections that could lead to infertility later in life.
“The use of toilet tissue papers and pieces of clothes is not ideal because of the risk of infection.
“ Girls should not be using tissue papers for menstruation. How much will it absorb and they are not clean enough like the tampons? It may absorb but the risk of infection is there.
“ When they get infected in the genital tract, if it gets to the upper reproductive tract, they may have a pelvic infection”, he cautioned.
The United Nations Children’s Fund states that poor menstrual hygiene can pose physical health risks and has been linked to reproductive and urinary tract infections.
Worldwide, the UNFPA says an estimated 500 million people lack access to menstrual products and adequate facilities for menstrual health even as menstrual health is key in ensuring that individuals have control over their bodies and can make informed decisions about their reproductive health.
They also do not have adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management like clean water and toilets.
Across Nigeria, the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products due to high cost has had a huge impact on many girls from vulnerable homes.
Executive Director, of Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative, Abiodun Ajayi, told our correspondent that the government should wake up to its responsibility and address the problem of poverty period for adolescent girls in Nigeria which he said had been worsened by rising poverty.
Ajayi said the government should include sanitary products in its palliative distribution.
He said, “The government is making efforts to share food palliative but more often, they forget that palliative should not only be targeted at food. We have a future we need to protect and this future also deserves this palliative.
“The government should be holistic in its approach. In a family, we may have seven adolescent girls who menstruate every month. So, the government needs to find a way of empowering their parents financially. The government needs to make sanitary products available for girls.
“They should ensure that these girls have affordable sanitary products that they can use.”
He further said while the government is distributing food palliative, they should ensure that pads are distributed as palliatives at the locations.
On their part, UN Women said ending period poverty was possible if the government sees it as a policy and budget issue.
“By making menstrual products free or affordable, ensuring wider access to safe sanitation facilities in schools and workplaces, and changing social norms to reverse stigma, we can put a stop to period poverty.
“Advocacy to end period poverty, led by women and girls themselves, is showing promising results in many parts of the world. In 2020, Scotland became the first country to provide period products free of charge, including reusable options.
“Kenya began removing taxes on menstrual products as well as on the raw materials for their production in 2004, and by 2017 started distributing free sanitary pads in public schools”, the UN women said.
They also noted that South Africa has delivered free disposable sanitary pads to poor women and girls since 2019, and Botswana has made free sanitary pads available in public and private schools, urging Nigeria to do the same.
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