Research BRIEF - Menstrual Hygiene Management Evidence from SHGs in Tamil Nadu

Research BRIEF Menstrual Hygiene Management Evidence from SHGs in Tamil Nadu September 2021 Authors Sujatha Srinivasan Geetanjali GK Image Credit: Meena Kadri | Flickr BACKGROUND The adoption of the human right to water and sanitation by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010 urged the integration of a human rights perspective into the design and delivery of water, sanita. [...] In an attempt to address these inequities, Goal 6.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals advocates explicitly for “access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations”. [...] This growing recognition of the importance of mainstreaming gender needs in the delivery of sanitation and hygiene should find resonance within national policies and practices to effectively reduce the inequalities experienced by women and girls in accessing sanitation and hygiene. [...] Restrictive in the reproductive social norms and practices around menstrual hygiene among households and communities in India adversely age of 15-49 years impact women and adolescent girls, underscoring the and requires access need for MHM-oriented programmes that focus on to safe menstrual awareness generation and access to hygiene materials (van Eijk & et al., 2015; Hennegan & Montgomery, 2016). [...] The study was conducted in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, as NFHS-4 suggests that only 57.62 per cent of the women aged 15-24 years in the district used a hygienic method of menstrual protection, compared to a corresponding figure of 91 per cent for the state of Tamil Nadu.