87.5 million adolescent girls in India currently attend school. According to AC, Neilsen, as many as 30% of these girls are at the risk of dropping out; inability to adequately manage menstruation at school is a leading cause for this statistic.
For a girl to adequately manage her period during school, she needs more than access to sanitary menstrual management products. The school’s physical infrastructure needs to be adequately equipped and the school’s social infrastructure needs to be correctly fabricated.
Azadi’s Menstrual Friendly Schools Initiative aims to map government schools in North India on “menstrual friendliness” – a safe environment and necessary infrastructure in government schools – based on several quantitative and qualitative parameters. This information will then be channeled to local bodies and government, who will be supported in taking action to fill critical gaps.
Menstrual Friendly Schools drives accountability both at the community and government level to improve the physical and social infrastructure of government schools, making them more functional, friendlier, and safer for female students.