{"id":41075,"date":"2024-05-30T11:16:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T05:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=41075"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:44:03","slug":"menstrual-hygiene-in-indian-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/menstrual-hygiene-in-indian-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"Menstrual Hygiene in Indian Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Background<\/li>\n<li>What is the Meaning of Menstrual Hygiene?<\/li>\n<li>Status of Menstrual Hygiene in Indian Prisons<\/li>\n<li>Measures Taken by the Government<\/li>\n<li>Way Ahead<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Background<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India has made significant progress in menstrual hygiene management.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>National Family Health Survey (NFHS 2019-2020) shows that around 80% of young women aged 15-24 now use safe menstrual products<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>However, while urban areas and certain groups have seen improvements, women in Indian prisons remain neglected.<\/li>\n<li>In a society that often denies prisoners basic rights, female prisoners suffer more due to societal biases that refuse to accept women can commit crimes.<\/li>\n<li>This has led to their basic needs, like menstrual hygiene, being overlooked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the Meaning of Menstrual Hygiene?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) is essential to the well-being and empowerment of women and adolescent girls.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>On any given day, more than 300 million women worldwide are menstruating<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In total, <strong>an estimated 500 million lack access to menstrual products and adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management<\/strong> (MHM).<\/li>\n<li>To effectively manage their menstruation, girls and women require:\n<ul>\n<li>Access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities,<\/li>\n<li>Affordable and appropriate menstrual hygiene materials,<\/li>\n<li>Information on good practices, and<\/li>\n<li>Supportive environment where they can manage menstruation without embarrassment or stigma.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Status of Menstrual Hygiene in Indian Prisons<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are <strong>23,772 women in Indian prisons<\/strong>, with 77% in the reproductive age group and likely to menstruate regularly.<\/li>\n<li>However, the availability and quality of sanitary napkins in prisons are inconsistent and often inadequate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Despite the2016 Model Prison Manual&#8217;s recommendations, many states haven&#8217;t provided sufficient water and washroom facilities for female prisoners<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Overcrowding and poor conditions make it difficult for women to access essentials like water, sanitary napkins, detergent, and soap during menstruation.<\/li>\n<li>A 2023 study conducted in a Maharashtra prison revealed that <strong>water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities are inadequate, forcing women to store water and share limited toilets<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This situation led to higher instances of urinary infections and difficulties in maintaining menstrual hygiene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Prisons rely on NGOs for sanitary napkin donations, often resulting in substandard products.<\/li>\n<li>In one case, only one pair of reusable napkins was provided per woman, which was impractical due to limited access to water and detergent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Measures Taken by the Government<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India has been working to improve menstrual hygiene access, particularly for young women, through initiatives like the <strong>Menstrual Hygiene Scheme<\/strong>, which distributes free or subsidized sanitary napkins.<\/li>\n<li>Additionally,<strong> affordable Suraksha Suvidha Napkins are available at Jan Aushadhi Kendras for \u20b91 each<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In 2023, India introduced the <strong>&#8216;National Menstrual Hygiene Policy<\/strong>&#8216; to recognize menstruation as a natural process needing more attention, emphasizing equity in safe and dignified menstrual hygiene management for all, regardless of socioeconomic status or location.\n<ul>\n<li>The policy acknowledges prisoners as a group with limited access to menstrual hygiene.<\/li>\n<li>However, it lacks a specific action plan to address this issue and does not involve the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is crucial for prison-related matters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Way Ahead<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian government must ensure basic menstrual hygiene standards for women in prisons.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>inconsistent implementation of the Model Prison Manual 2016 across states needs immediate action, with every state required to follow its recommendations<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Addressing menstrual hygiene in prisons should be seen through a public health perspective as part of combating &#8216;period poverty.&#8217;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Public health authorities and prison administrators should collaborate to develop a comprehensive strategy<\/strong> for providing adequate menstrual hygiene products and facilities, prioritizing the health and dignity of incarcerated women.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, <strong>there is a need for research to understand the current state of menstrual hygiene in prisons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1. Is Prison under the Concurrent List?<\/h3>\n<p>&#8216;Prisons&#8217; is a State subject under the State List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2. What is the meaning of POSH policy?<\/h3>\n<p>The Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, officially known as the &#8220;Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013&#8221;, is a law in India designed to protect women and all employees from sexual harassment at the workplace.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/menstrual-hygiene-in-indian-prisons-explained\/article68222812.ece#:~:text=The%20study%20also%20found%20that,the%20supply%20of%20substandard%20products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Menstrual hygiene in Indian prisons | Explained<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Menstrual Health and Hygiene is essential to the well-being of women and adolescent girls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}