Mumbai: State Government to create awareness on menstruation in schools

Mumbai: For the first time, training regarding menstrual hygiene management (MHM) would be conducted in all schools under the state government. Six sessions will be conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to train teachers and education officers at district level. This programme has been initiated to break the myth, misunderstanding and abolish all the superstitions related to menstruation.

Till date, education regarding menstruation was limited to installation of sanitary napkin vending machines in state government schools. Apart from this, there was no scope for an awareness programme or informative sessions on this process. With this new initiative, the government aims to go beyond by educating students about the process and creating awareness.

The initial training will be imparted by UNICEF at the district level and later teachers and officers will continue it in the respective schools. Suvarna Kharat, Deputy Secretary of State School Education, said, “We aim to create awareness among students about menstruation and strive to create a comfortable environment for female students. In addition, through this training we want to abolish the misunderstandings prevalent with this process. We all need to understand that menstruation is a natural process.”

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A pilot project was conducted in Thane district where training was imparted to female teachers of over 2,000 schools. Meena Yadav, Education Officer of Thane district said, “Students of rural areas do not know how to deal with this process. Also, there are various myths attached to this which deter the female students from openly talking about this issue. After the training, the students have understood the seriousness of this issue and are sensitive towards it.”

A parent said, “It is a good thing that schools are addressing such issues and creating an environment to talk about it.”