Menstruation and Poverty by Mahbubat Salahudeen
Period poverty is one of the many results of widespread poverty in Nigeria with over 42% of people in poverty which is approximately 82 million people living below poverty line.
From schools to business places, to religious institution amongst others, women and girls face the harsh reality on inability to manage their menstrual flow due to lack of access to functional toilets, sanitary pads and sanitation common in many low and middle-income countries of which Nigeria sits top. For many girls in Nigeria seeing their period means putting their lives on hold, in some places particularly in the Northern region, menstruation is often associated with stigmatization and marginalization and girls feel embarrassed often excluding themselves from schools and other social activities this leads to them missing about 10 to 20% of school days in Nigeria. Approximately, 37% of women and girls of childbearing age lack access to menstrual products in Nigerian societies and 2.3 billion represents menstruates who have no access to menstrual products globally.
Five hundred women and girls spend each month in period poverty, this crisis has continued to take a toll on the emotional life, education of the girl child amongst others and the pandemic has further hindered the efforts of Non Governmental Organizations saddled with the responsibility of curbing the escalating rate of period poverty and tutoring girls in marginalized communities the art of making reusable sanitary pads. Lack of access to sanitary products have forced menstruates experiencing period poverty to result to unhygienic means to absorb their flow which in turn results to reproductive tract infections and death.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, women and girls are forced to struggle to access sanitary products, these women are challenged with period poverty as they lack access to clean water, private toilets and sanitary products to handle their menstruation. On average, a woman or girl of childbearing age spends up to Thirty-five Thousand Naira on disposable sanitary pads for six years, about Six thousand, six hundred Naira in a year and five hundred Naira in a month. Following several negative outcomes linked to period poverty, there is likelihood of some girls trading sex for menstrual health products in light of the pandemic and inflation thereby giving an increased risk of contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), teenage pregnancies and exposure to gender based violence.
Right to health is a fundamental human right and menstrual health is not excluded. However, the increasing rate of menstrual poverty in Nigeria suggests that a fundamental right to health with an emphasis on sexual and reproductive health is less exercised. Period poverty has been a issue of great concern to the rights of women and girls before the outbreak of the pandemic. Government, private institutions and non-governmental organizations should make it a priority to invest in public health infrastructure, water and sanitation system. Menstrual hygiene management should be incorporated in academic curriculum so as to ensure that youths especially menstruates have sufficient understanding required in menstrual hygiene management.
Strident steps must be taken to curb the escalating rate of period poverty in Nigeria and menstrual hygiene should be put in the heart of any emergency response in the country.
IHRAF 2022 Youth Fellow Mahbubat Salahudeen is a writer, poet and spoken words artist who has works featured or forthcoming at several places including Spillwords magazine, Brittle Paper, Ice Flow press, Ninshar Arts, Ice Lolly, Arts Lounge, SprinNG journal, Litround journal, Down in the Dirt, Aayo Magazine, Nanty Greens, Cathartic Review, Northern Otter Press, Konya Shamsrumi, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Terror House Press, Confetti, Beatnik Cowboy, Fterota Logia, Borrowed Solace and elsewhere. She is a winner of IHRAF Creators of Literary Justice Award 2021. She is on Twitter at @SMahbubat
