When a patient suffers from any health-related disease in a developed country, they are provided with care and proper medicine. However, when a woman in India is diagnosed with reproductive tract infection, she is shunned and provided with little to no adequate treatment. This is not the life of just one woman, but 40,000 women who died in India this year due to cervical cancer deaths caused by poor menstrual hygiene.
According to a 2014 UNICEF report, 79% of women and girls in India are unaware of menstrual hygiene practices due to a social stigma around menstruation. Not only do schools rarely speak to schoolgirls about menstruation, but 70% of mothers, themselves, consider menstruation dirty, leading to 71% of adolescent girls being unaware of this taboo subject until their late teen years.
Not only is the process of menstruation looked down on in India, leading to women and girls being isolated outside of their homes and temples for the duration of their periods, but sanitary pads are rarely accessible due to their lack of affordability for many women in this country. A total of 2-3% of women and girls use sanitary pads in rural India, leaving the majority of women to use dirty clothes, rags, etc as a substitution. In an effort to save more money for their necessary resources, including food, school tuition, and taxes, women put their lives at risk.
However, the Precious Girls Foundation directly aids women in India by providing clean, sanitary pads by working with several organizations and a strong team of members. More women and young girls have access to sanitary pads, having a healthy effect on their lives and reduce the risk of dangerous health diseases, such as cervical cancer, reproductive tract infection, fungal infections, and even death. In this process, the negative stigma surrounding women and their menstruation cycles will decline as the Precious Girls Foundation actively advocates for the 355 million menstruating women in India. Overall, the Precious Girls Foundation strives towards providing more women in India with sanitary pads, and in the process, uplifting young women in their education and for future success.
Throughout the world, millions of girls every day are diagnosed with diseases and infections due to the lack of menstrual sanitation. These diseases often cause death and lead to other dreadful health problems. When the menstrual cycle isn’t treated with proper care, it results in numerous infections, but the three most common are Bacterial Vaginosis (BV), Candida, and Trichomonas Vaginalis (TV).
In a particular study in India, a couple of hospitals chose a total of 558 non-pregnant women of generative age (18 – 45 years) for the study in which 62% were diagnosed with at least one of the tested infections and 52% extended with one or more RTI ( Reproductive Tract Infection) symptoms. This study highlighted the extreme extent of cervical diseases among women in India in which PGF is taking an effort to ease this issue.
Due to these cervical diseases among teenage girls at a young age, many girls drop out of school because of the lack of sanitary menstrual products affordability. Countless families believe that instead of “wasting” money on menstrual pads, a more “reasonable” use would be to save up money for food and living costs. In India, about 23 million girls drop out of school every year after they start menstruating. As this issue has become more prominent in India, Precious Girls Foundation hopes to eradicate this poverty issue and distribute free sanitary pads to uplift young girls in their education and success.
