Improving quality of life with new menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent tribal girls in rural Gujarat, India

The Government of India has started a new scheme aimed at offering sanitary pads at a subsidized rate to adolescent girls in rural areas. This paper addresses menstrual health and hygiene practices among adolescent girls in a rural, tribal region of South Gujarat, India, and their experiences using...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Reproductive health matters 2013-06, Vol.21 (41), p.205-213
Main Authors: Shah, Shobha P, Nair, Rajesh, Shah, Pankaj P, Modi, Dhiren K, Desai, Shrey A, Desai, Lata
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorbents
Adolescent
adolescent girls
Adolescents
Child
Data collection
Fabrics
FEATURE
Female
Females
Girls
Gujarat
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Hygiene
India
Internal Medicine
Medical practice
Menstrual Hygiene Products
Menstruation
menstruation and menstrual hygiene
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Qualitative analysis
Quality of Life
Quantitative analysis
Reproductive health
Reproductive tract infections
Rural Areas
Rural Population
sanitary pads
Social reproduction
Symptoms
Tribal society
Villages
Young Adult
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Summary:The Government of India has started a new scheme aimed at offering sanitary pads at a subsidized rate to adolescent girls in rural areas. This paper addresses menstrual health and hygiene practices among adolescent girls in a rural, tribal region of South Gujarat, India, and their experiences using old cloths, a new soft cloth (falalin) and sanitary pads. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in a community-based study over six months, with a pre-and post- design, among 164 adolescent girls from eight villages. Questions covered knowledge of menstruation, menstrual practices, quality of life, experience and satisfaction with the different cloths/pads and symptoms of reproductive tract infections. Knowledge regarding changes of puberty, source of menstrual blood and route of urine and menstrual flow was low. At baseline 90% of girls were using old cloths. At the end of the study, 68% of adolescent girls said their first choice was falalin cloths, while 32% said it was sanitary pads. None of them preferred old cloths. The introduction of falalin cloths improved quality of life significantly (p
ISSN:0968-8080
1460-9576
DOI:10.1016/S0968-8080(13)41691-9