Close to 12% of young girls think menstruation is a curse from God or caused by disease: study

For World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Child Rights and You’s releases findings from a study on awareness of menstrual hygiene and health amongst adolescent girls in India

Close to 4,000 girls aged 10-17 years from 38 districts in the country participated in the survey for two months. Image for representation purpose only. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

Close to 12% of young girls did not know the correct cause of menstruation and said it is a curse from God or caused by disease, revealed a survey conducted by the NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) on the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day on Sunday (May 28).

Close to 4,000 girls aged 10-17 years from 38 districts in the country participated in the survey for two months. The ‘Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice’ is part of the Period Shame campaign that CRY kicked off last year. This study was conducted to develop an understanding of the status of the menstrual health scheme under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram programme launched by the Union Government in 2014.

The study was conducted from July to August 2022 in 38 districts, and 3,964 girls aged 10-17 participated. The sample size had 66.1% girls from urban India, 30.2% from rural and 3.7% from urban slums. About 77.8% of girls were studying in government schools and 22.2% in private schools.

According to the study, 84% of the girls were knowledgeable about the cause of menstruation and said that it was a biological process, whereas 11.3% of the girls did not know the correct cause of menstruation and said that it was a curse from god or caused by disease. About 4.6% of the girls were not at all aware about the cause of menstruation.

As much as 61.4% of girls have accepted that a sense of embarrassment existed in society with regard to periods, the study found. Access to sanitary pads was limited to many girls, with 44.5% of girls admitting to using homemade absorbents or cloth. Hesitation or shyness to purchase pads from the shops, difficulty in disposing of pads, poor availability and no knowledge of pads were the reasons for not using sanitary pads.

The highest percentage of girls 27.7% reported that their mother was the main source of information on menstruation, followed by 22.8% who said the main source was a friend, 15.9% said elder sister and 8.8% mentioned NGOs.