A Documentary Film On Menstrual Hygiene Taboo & Myths.The 4-minute, 5-second documentary, on the theme Water Sanitation, Menstrual Hygiene and Girl Education, features the life of a young girl and her experiences at home with regard to sanitation and menstrual hygiene. Date of release of the documentary film “The Curse “on Menstrual Hygiene was June 30th, 2014.

Nearly half of India’s 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home women/Girls are most affected by the hazards of lack of proper water & sanitation facilities. It is a well-established fact that around 23% of girls drop out of school every year in India due to inadequate menstrual hygiene facilities including lack of access to functioning toilets for girls in 66% of schools. Access to adequate sanitation facilities imparts a sense of dignity, especially to women &young girls and also linked to continued education enrolment by young girls particularly at puberty. 80 % of girls are unaware of what menstruation is. 1 in 3 women worldwide risk shame, sexual harassment and attacks due to lack of toilet facilities. In rural areas and urban slums, incidents of rape are commonly caused by lack of WASH facilities.

The problem of menstrual hygiene mainly occurs to the uneducated girls in their teenage. The underage girls do not have proper information on the so-dreaded monthly event that many of us call “The Curse”. The root cause of this problem is ignorance and lack of education both at School and home. Young girls often grow up with limited knowledge of menstruation because their mothers and other women shy away from discussing the issues with them. the practical challenges of menstrual hygiene are made even more difficult by socio-cultural factors and millions of women and girls continue to be denied their rights to WASH, health, education, dignity and gender equality.

Taboos surrounding menstruating girls exclude them from many aspects of social, educational and cultural life. She is not even allowed to enter the kitchen and also made to eat her food alone. She is barred from worshiping during her periods. As a result, women and girls are often denied access to water and sanitation when they need it the most. Even to date, 90% of the population uses homemade pads and reuse them instead of sanitary pads thus getting prone to deadly diseases like cervical cancer, respiratory infection, Urinary tract Infections, anaemia etc. So, let’s strive towards improving the lives of girls in water and sanitation. To manage menstruation hygienically and with dignity, it is essential that girls have access to water and sanitation facilities. So, let’s join hands together and start working to eradicate this problem from the root. The time has come to promote – loudly and unashamedly – the role of good Menstrual Hygiene (MH) as a trigger for better, stronger development of girls rights.

HEEALS, a registered non-profit organization in India, working on the importance of menstrual hygiene, water, sanitation facilities and girl education.