A 'Period Room" Is An Excellent Initiative And Must Be Replicated All Over
By our team of in-house writers.
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First publised on 2021-01-12 06:22:42
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By our team of in-house writers.
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When girls and women are out on the streets for work or anything else, the biggest problem they face is in relieving themselves when the urge comes. Despite public toilets in all areas in cities and towns, women face a huge challenge in visiting them due to the fact that hygiene is at a premium in such facilities and the risk of getting infected is omnipresent. They can use toilets in malls if they are nearby as they are well maintained.
And, God forbid if a woman is having her periods and needs to change her sanitary pad while commuting. There are simply no facilities available to do that, not even in swanky malls. The best alternative is to change the same inside a toilet and then think of how to dispose the used one. If she is caught by the maintenance staff, she runs the risk of being shamed and more.
Hence it is that the decision of the Thane Municipal Corporation to have a 'period room' in a public toilet block at the Lokmanya Nagar slum needs to be lauded, publicized and replicated all over the country. This room will have a urinal, a jet spray, a toilet roll-holder, soap, running water, hooks to hang clothes and a dustbin to dispose of menstrual waste, things which a woman desperately needs when faced with the problem of changing sanitary pads when out of her house.
As it is there are hundreds of taboos associated with menstrual cycle in India. The least which we can do is to provide girls and women a private enclosure to do the needful if they face a problem when on the streets. If such rooms are available everywhere in toilet blocks, it will give more freedom to girls. Along with this, the general hygiene in women's toilets around the country needs to be upgraded to allow them to use such facilities without fear.
pic courtesy: whatshot.in
