A recent survey on adolescents’ hygiene reveals that menstruation is a serious threat to the education of schoolgirls in Bangladesh.
Around 40% of the surveyed girls reported that they did not go to school for an average of three days every month during the time of their menstruation. The study also found that 89% of the girls stored their menstrual cloths in a hidden place for repeated use without washing them in a hygienic manner.
The ICDDRB’s Centre for Communicable Diseases (CCD) conducted the survey titled “Bangladesh National Hygiene Baseline Survey” in association with the Policy Support Unit of Local Government Division. The survey was financed by international development organisation WaterAid Bangladesh with technical cooperation from Stanford University.
The ICDDRB issued a press release on the survey yesterday.
The objective of the survey was to assess the hygiene practices of adolescents and a total of 100 rural and urban areas (both schools and household settings) were surveyed across the country.
The study found that a single toilet was available for every 187 students in schools against the government standard of one toilet per 50 students. Only 45% schools had improved toilets for students and only a quarter of the toilets were clean. Less than 5% schools had separate toilet facilities for boys and girls that offered optimal menstrual hygiene management.
According to Dr Leanne Unicomb, head of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Research Group that led the survey, schools are important settings for disease prevention initiatives, in part because hygiene behaviours that are learnt early in life can lead to habit adoption.