Exploring The Paradigm Shift From Equality To Dignity With Special Reference To Women’s Rights Related To ‘Menstrual Hygiene’ In India And Europe: Understanding The Connection With The Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Women’s rights and gender equality have always been seen as being fundamental, rather inevitable conditions for sustainability, on both national as well as global levels. Global development goals have given much acknowledgment to addressing the issues that hinder women’s progress, such as discrimination, violence, unequal access to education and economic opportunities, and limited political representation; focusing on bringing ‘equality’ between the contesting sexes. Predominantly, the thrust areas aiming at gender equality and empowerment have been domestic rights, civil rights, education, political and work participation, and the like.  With social change, the whole paradigm of speech and expression has also changed. Many aspects never used to be discussed earlier, menstruation and menstrual hygiene are some of those ‘never cared for’ concerns. Gendered notions and the pressure of patriarchy did not allow these concerns to surface in discussion or social issues and they stayed overlooked for being very individualistic, in fact, ‘feminine’ in nature. Women used to be judged with prejudices and did not get social acceptance if they shared about biological or any other related aspects of sexuality in public or even in the family. This hesitation among women has been one major cause because of which menstrual hygiene has been ignored as a crucial factor of ‘health’ for decades. Gradually as an impact of movements for individual liberty and gender equality, the expression by women has become fearless and open; many women now address their biological and menstrual concerns publically and in families also. Changes in social and legal institutions have also led to the broadening of women’s expression. In addition, this has been accepted and claimed that ‘access to clean and safe menstrual hygiene management facilities and affordable and sustainable menstrual products’ is not only a matter of health but also a fundamental right that impacts women’s dignity along with equality. The present paper attempts to explore and interpret the connection between women’s rights and menstrual health within the framework of sustainable development. A major aim of the paper is to assess the progress made by Europe and India in addressing and redressing the issues related to menstruation and menstrual health being faced by women. Major sources of information and data that have been used for developing this manuscript include the existing literature; policy documents; reports from international and national organizations; and other statistical data available on organizations’ website/s. the information gathered hereby has helped the authors to draw a logical comparative analysis of related conditions and provisions in Europe and India. Although the research has uncovered noteworthy findings, the overall analysis of India and Europe emphasises that there is a requirement for a holistic and direct approach to sustainable development that considers the needs and challenges faced by women and girls related to menstrual health and hygiene.