Beyond Pads: Global Advocates Call for Dignified Menstruation as a Human Right..

By Alain Kabinda

For millions of girls and women around the world, menstruation remains more than a monthly biological process. It is often accompanied by stigma, discrimination, poverty, and barriers that affect education, health, safety, and dignity.

As the world marked Menstrual Hygiene Day and the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, global advocates gathered to challenge conventional approaches to menstrual health, calling for a shift from simply providing menstrual products to recognizing menstruation as a fundamental human rights issue.

The discussions, held during the SHE & Rights session organized by the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) and its partners, brought together health experts, gender advocates, Media and policymakers from different parts of the world to examine the realities facing menstruators in an era marked by inflation, climate change, humanitarian crises, and growing inequalities.

At the centre of the conversation was Nepali nurse and activist Ms. Radha Paudel, who argued that dignified menstruation extends far beyond access to menstrual pads.

According to Ms. Paudel, stated that menstruation must be viewed through the lens of human rights, encompassing dignity, freedom, equality, and non-discrimination.

“Dignified menstruation is rooted in the right to dignity, the right to freedom, the right to equality, and the right to non-discrimination,” Ms. Paudel said.

Ms. Paudel emphasized that menstruators should be considered in all policy and emergency planning processes, including refugee camps, evacuation centres, disaster response programmes, and humanitarian interventions.

For Ms. Paudel, one of the biggest challenges is that menstrual discrimination remains deeply embedded in societies around the world.

She described menstrual discrimination as a complex issue that includes silence, stigma, harmful restrictions, exclusion, violence, deprivation of resources, and denial of services.

“These experiences reinforce unequal power relations and patriarchy,” Ms. Paudel said.

She further challenged the widespread use of the term “sanitary pads,” arguing that menstruation is natural and should not be associated with notions of impurity.

The dialogue also explored how global economic and environmental crises are worsening menstrual health challenges.

And Coordinator of the SHE & Rights campaign, Ms. Shobha Shukla, described the current global landscape as a “poly-crisis,” where inflation, climate-induced disasters, supply chain disruptions, and poverty are occurring simultaneously.

For an estimated 500 million people who experience period poverty worldwide, these overlapping crises have transformed menstrual hygiene from a basic health necessity into a difficult financial decision.

“Families are increasingly forced to prioritize food and fuel over menstrual products,” Ms. Shuka noted.

The impact is particularly severe in low-income communities, where rising prices have made menstrual products inaccessible for many households.

Climate change emerged as another major concern during the discussions.

Advocates highlighted how natural disasters frequently disrupt access to clean water, sanitation facilities, menstrual products, and safe spaces for women and girls.

In the Philippines, WGNRR Programme Officer Joie Cortina shared experiences from communities displaced by fires.

She recalled that among the most urgent needs identified by women and girls affected by disasters were underwear and menstrual products—items often overlooked in emergency relief efforts.

“When people lose everything, maintaining dignity becomes just as important as receiving food and water,” Ms. Paudel said.

Similarly, Indonesian gender and health advocate Rita Widiadana described how floods, earthquakes, and conflicts continue to expose women and girls to heightened menstrual health challenges.

She noted that women often lose access to safe sanitation facilities and menstrual supplies while living in evacuation centres.

“Menstrual products are not luxury items. They are essential for health and dignity,” she stressed.

The African perspective highlighted how economic pressures are forcing many girls and women into unsafe menstrual practices.

And Ms. Angel Babirye, speaking from Uganda, said rising inflation has significantly increased the cost of menstrual products across the continent.

As a result, many families are forced to make difficult choices between purchasing food and buying menstrual products.

Ms. Babirye explained that some girls are compelled to extend the use of menstrual products beyond recommended periods or resort to unsafe alternatives such as cloth, socks, or other improvised materials.

Health experts warn that such practices increase the risk of infections and other reproductive health complications.

And Many girls continue to miss school during menstruation because they lack access to menstrual products, clean water, and private sanitation facilities.

Throughout the discussions, speakers repeatedly emphasized the need to move beyond seeing menstruation solely as a hygiene issue.

Instead, they called for menstrual health to be integrated into broader conversations about education, healthcare, gender equality, climate resilience, and social justice.

Advocates stressed that governments, development partners, schools, healthcare institutions, and communities must work together to ensure that menstruators have access not only to products but also to information, healthcare services, privacy, and dignity.

They also highlighted the importance of including boys and men in menstrual health education to help dismantle harmful stereotypes and normalize conversations around menstruation.

As global efforts continue to promote menstrual health, campaigners say success will require addressing the root causes of menstrual discrimination and ensuring that the voices of menstruators themselves are placed at the centre of policy and programme design.

For many participants, the vision of a “period-friendly world” goes beyond access to pads and hygiene facilities.

It is about creating societies where no girl misses school because of her period, where no woman feels ashamed of a natural biological process, and where menstrual health is recognized as an essential component of human dignity and equality.

The message from advocates was clear: menstruation is not merely a health issue—it is a human rights issue, and achieving dignified menstruation is essential to building more inclusive, equitable, and resilient societies.

(c) All Copyrights Reserved.