ABOUT 7 million girls and women in South Africa lack access to menstrual products. Period poverty, the lack of access to affordable sanitary hygiene products, adversely impacts females, who comprise more than half (51.35%) of the entire population.

Sanitary hygiene products are an essential feature for every female in the world. Yet why is this fundamentally basic requirement still being so arduously fought for in our modern, post democratic nation?

Period poverty is not only rooted in the physical products that are required during menstruation, it is also directly linked to the stigmatisation of women in our society, and the insufficiency with which menstruation has been dealt with across our society. Socially, politically, culturally, religiously, and institutionally, there has been a widespread undermining of the challenges around menstruation and the impact that it has in our society.

From fundamental schooling levels, sex education that is taught in schools is alarmingly brief, and does not meaningfully engage learners about natural physiological processes such as menstrual cycles.

Countless children — not only close to home, but all over the world — start their period at home, often abruptly, leaving them terrified, confused and ashamed of this naturally occurring process. Furthermore, too few schools are actively providing safe spaces and critical resources, such as sanitary pads and hot-water bottles, that will normalise this process.

Furthermore, this means that young schoolgirls are missing a significant 25% of their school year education (about a week a month) due to period poverty and lack of access to critical resources.

Even for older high school children, the pressure to balance academics, lengthy classes and vigorous sports, such as swimming and basketball, can be excessively worsened by one’s menstruation cycle.

This does not necessarily alleviate in adulthood. Many women are forced to perform at an extraordinary rate throughout the day. For many women, menstruation may be compounded by debilitating period pains, nausea, fatigue, migraines, diarrhoea, and so much more. This is the reality of more than 4 billion women across the world.

Menstruation is a part of daily life, and occurs in women concurrently at any given time in society. Our society needs to pull itself up by the bootstraps and start working with women to alleviate the challenges around this process.

More than half of all the women in South Africa are living in abject poverty. Across the nation, about 43% of all households depend solely on a female breadwinner. Yet during the time of menstruation, many women are severely implicated, systematically excluded, or purely overlooked across countless industries in our society. This should come to an end.

This needs to be studiously addressed in every sector of our society. From educational institutions to legislative bodies, women need to be supported in a transformative way in our society.

This is a significant challenge that has been contended with — rather strenuously — in recent years. In fact, just over a month ago, Team Free Sanitary Pads non-profit organisation (NPO), met with Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health to drive forward a petition advocating for better menstrual health and hygiene management in South Africa.

More astoundingly, our Sadc neighbour has been revolutionary in successfully implementing a menstrual leave policy known as “Mother’s Day”. This national policy allows women to take one day off per month without needing to provide medical proof.

South Africa needs to look to neighbours such as Zambia, which have actively and effectively put women’s needs and rights at the forefront. This is how to drive true development and empowerment in a society.

Period poverty and challenges around menstruation are not a cavalier problem in our society. It is a deep reality that affects the very quality of our society and communities, and it needs to be undertaken with the seriousness that it deserves. This is a constitutional right, embedded through the right to health and the right to dignity. This needs to be addressed now, so that the young girls of tomorrow do not face the same fate as so many before them.

* Tswelopele Makoe is a gender and social justice activist and the editor of the Global South Media Network. She is a researcher and columnist, published weekly in the Sunday Independent, IOL, Global South Media Network, Sunday Tribune and Eswatini Daily News. The views expressed are her own.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.

period poverty

The reality of period poverty: A call for action in South Africa