A death speaks of girls' horrifying menstrual hygiene management
The girl fainted in the classroom because of unbearable pain. When the student of class IX was taken to hospital, she was declared dead. Two little snakes were found in her uterus during the post-mortem.
The horrifying incident that took place in Jessore's Jhikargachha upazila in 2009 was narrated yesterday by Shafiur Rahman, deputy programme manager of Adolescent School Health at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
A strip of old cloth she took from a damp corner of her house contained the baby snakes; she used it during menstrual bleeding, he said. “Had the girl been able to talk about menstruation with somebody, the situation would be different.”
Shafiur narrated the story at a roundtable organised by the Prothom Alo and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at the daily's office in the capital on the occasion of International Day of the Girl Child today.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki said giving information on reproductive health to adolescent girls remained a major challenge.
“Teachers don't want to talk about it in the classroom, and parents don't discuss it either,” she said.
“It's very difficult to change such attitudes, but forming peer groups where the information comes from other girls will prove to be successful.”
While Bangladesh expects to be a mid-income country by 2021, the emphasis should be on building a society free of discrimination, said educationist Rasheda K Chowdhury.
“We want a discrimination-free middle-income country. We achieved 100 percent enrolment of girls in primary schools and 69 percent in secondary schools. But majority of the girls drop out before completing education,” she said. Presenting the overall situation of adolescent girls in the country, UNFPA's National Programme Officer Muhammad Munir Hasan said if a large number of girls dropped out of schools because of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, the country's overall development would be thwarted.
Child protection specialist of United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) Shabnaz Jeherin said Bangladesh already had 10 lakh homeless children. As the number is likely to increase with rapid urbanisation, the emphasis should be to fight discrimination, she said.
Programme coordinator of Manusher Jonno Foundation Abdullah Al Mamun said girl children working as domestic helps were often abused inside households.
“These girls are most at risk of being abused as the abuse takes place in homes and the stories remain unknown to the outside world,” he said, urging the authorities to make a law to protect domestic helps.
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