“Autonomy can be meaningfully exercised only when girls have access to functional toilets, adequate menstrual products, availability of water and hygienic mechanisms for disposal. The state must remove the triptych of stigma, stereotyping and humiliation that girls with no access to these facilities are regularly subjected to,” the Supreme Court said recently, equating the ‘right to menstrual health and hygiene’ with the fundamental right to life and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.Taking a 360-degree view of the problem, the apex court ordered states and union territories to ensure that every school has functional, gender-segregated toilets, and wrote in punitive action for non-compliance.Health experts, child psychologists, women rights activists and other stakeholders have termed the SC verdict “historic”.“Menstruation is a biological as well as a psychological process. The need of the hour is not just shallow awareness, but proper education on the subject. Schools need to bring in professionals to educate both girls and boys on the matter. As the Supreme Court rightly pointed out, menstruation is one of the major reasons behind the drop-out ratio of girls in rural areas, while girls in urban areas are subjected to stigma and other stereotypes,” psychologist Indu Punj told The Tribune.“A lot of shame and stigma is associated with the topic because we continue to talk about it in hushed tones. The Supreme Court verdict marks a step towards normalising the conversation around the subject,” she added.Shehla Jamal, founder of Society of Menstrual Disorder and Hygiene Management, said, “We have been highlighting the issues raised by the court on multiple fora.”“We are one of the few social platforms to have researched menstrual health and hygiene issues, developed a menstrual health index, detailed specific menstrual health requirements and talked about respectful menstrual care. The SC order will play a phenomenal role in starting a conversation on this crucial issue,” she said.Recalling a harrowing tale from the slums of Nizamuddin in south Delhi, Jamal, who is a gynaecologist, said she once came across homeless girls who used to deface seats of parked buses, auto-rickshaws and e-rickshaws during night, and use sponge material as sanitary pads.“These girls told me those who had access to pads made of such (soft) material were lucky. They also told me that they used to squeeze the same material and re-use it as there was no free supply of sanitary pads. If this is the ground situation in the Capital, one can imagine the circumstances in Tier 2 or 3 cities,” she added.Jamal further highlighted the need to take this conversation beyond schools and colleges. “All menstruating girls are not going to schools. So a major chunk of them are being deprived of this knowledge. We need to break this taboo by also creating awareness at panchayat and other grassroots levels, for both girls and boys,” she added.Shyam Bedekar, who created ripples after inventing a low-cost sanitary napkin incinerator ‘Ashudhdhinashak’, said the SC verdict was crucial for gender empowerment, education, hygiene management and equality.“I still remember when I used to attend seminars with my invention in 2010. Women engineers, science graduates and women involved in various other STEM disciplines used to applaud me and express surprise about how I, being a man, could understand the trouble that women go through for the want of access to sanitary pads and their safe disposal,” he said.“Today, we send these incinerators to Jordan, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Bhutan. In Bhutan, schools have even set up their own sanitary napkin manufacturing units to address the problem. They have ensured separate outlets for the disposal of pads so that school toilets are not clogged. Under the Gujarat Government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, our products are supplied to all schools and colleges,” he added.Child psychologist Maya Vohra asserts that the first level of awareness should begin at home. “Home is where crucial life lessons are decoded. It is time that even parents are sensitised about the subject. Many of them are responsible for eroding the confidence of young girls. Menstruating girls are prevented from stepping out in the evening or entering kitchen. Some even go to the extreme of keeping separate utensils for them to eat. Such unscientific practices can traumatise young minds,” she said.Recalling her experience at a remote village in Madhya Pradesh, she said, “The ‘inhumane’ treatment of menstruating women is stark in rural areas. Once, I travelled to a remote village in Jhabua district in MP as part of a study on adolescence health. I came across a mother and her two young daughters sharing the same ‘dhoti’ (piece of cloth) when they were menstruating.”“Some of the women in the village used to sit on ash pits the whole day because they lacked the paraphernalia, be it sanitary pads, menstrual cups or tampons. This is exactly the ‘menstrual poverty’ the apex court referred to,” added the psychologist.