From Tackling the last taboo by Christopher Williams:
"The lack of access to safe, hygienic and private menstruation also has major societal consequences. In India, up to a quarter of girls drop out of school when they reach puberty; in part because schools lack private or gender-segregated toilets. Women frequently miss work because they have no place to change the cloths they use. In Bangladesh, most employed women miss about six days of work each month, stifling productivity and advancement.
"The lack of access to safe, hygienic and private menstruation also has major societal consequences. In India, up to a quarter of girls drop out of school when they reach puberty; in part because schools lack private or gender-segregated toilets. Women frequently miss work because they have no place to change the cloths they use. In Bangladesh, most employed women miss about six days of work each month, stifling productivity and advancement.
So, if safe, hygienic and private menstruation is so critical to women’s lives and livelihoods, why don’t we hear about it more often? Why isn’t it higher on the international development or women’s rights agenda? The answer involves the difficulty of tackling deep-rooted customs, women’s position in society and the inherent discomfort in talking about normal but messy bodily functions.....
Today, for example, only 12 per cent of India’s menstruating women have access to commercial sanitary products, while many of the rest use dirty rags, newspaper or cotton. Innovative companies and organisations developing inexpensive, reusable sanitary products like the AFRIpad can help close this gap and must be supported."
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