Where is it going?

— Ella Pad

TO MARK Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, girls at Gaibandha char area demanded access to safe sanitary pads. It raises our curiosity that thousands of girls do not have access to safe sanitary pads at an affordable cost, even though our government has been giving subsidies and tax incentives on sanitary pads since 2019.

Five years ago, while the global movement on tax tampons was a popular protest and the government responded by cutting taxes on period products, corporations kept on flooding the market with unhealthy plastic pads. It happened in Bangladesh as well. Taking advantage of tax incentives, our major brands invested a lot to grab the market of our 35 million menstruating women and girls.

We hardly care about women's health and environmental standards. Unhealthy period products have emerged as a huge health hazard in addition to creating environmental pollution. ‘While low-cost reusable biodegradable pads are being made by hundreds of SMEs across the country’, says Salina Akter of the Ella Pad, ‘they are hardly getting the attention of policymakers’.

Demonstrators, under the banner of the Ella Alliance, also demanded correct information about the period products. They were asking for ‘menstrual equity’, chanting slogans with handwritten placards over discarded cartons and papers. It is interesting to note that they are not considering plastic-based traditional pads safe for their bodies. Girls growing up in the natural environment of Bharmaputra char are unfamiliar with all-pervasive plastic in their daily lives. They don't want to pollute their beautiful land, used for their livelihood, with plastic items. Their responsiveness to society is indeed encouraging.

Experts raised concerns about pushing plastic products and limiting the choice of customers. ‘Women's basic rights to choose which products they will use to manage their hygiene require women to have a choice to use what products are preferable, available and affordable’, said Dr Nurullah, health advisor at Water Aid. Appreciating the innovative initiative at Gaibandha, Dr Md Rafikuzzan, health and family planning officer, Fulchhari upazila, mentioned the Ella Pad was really addressing women's problems in managing their menstrual hygiene.

The story of Gaibandha is really eye-opening for our policymakers. Where are we going? Are we taking the right decisions in addressing period poverty? There are many messages for our policymakers. Being in a conservative society, the female demonstrators on the street — not common, in fact — were breaking the taboo of menstrual hygiene and pointing their fingers at the piling up of plastic waste that destroys our ecosystems. Like the last three years, our finance minister, on June 1, again proposed to provide tax incentives on sanitary napkins.

It is time to address ‘menstrual equity’, in addition to ensuring mere ‘period poverty’. We need to talk beyond menstrual products. We need to discuss who is getting access and what they are getting access to in the name of period products. The fact that the plastic pad is not healthy is unanimously agreed upon by scholars. Numerous health hazards are associated with plastic pads, in addition to environmental consequences. Even cloth pads are also under question if materials are not selected properly.

Do we need imported materials to address our period poverty? This needs to be considered seriously. Experts emphasise cloth-based pads as good for women's health and the environment. It looks like crony capitalists have captured the sanitary pad market and have created another problem of environmental pollution. The whole country is covered by plastic pads, which are piling up in cities and villages. Instead of ‘polluting first, clean later’, let's start now and focus on biodegradable and reusable pads.

Mahira Mamun is school program coordinator at Ella Pad.

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