Pads for Girls in Uganda: Are we asking the right questions? ***
KAMPALA: Recently, both mainstream and
social media kept us engaged with all kinds of opinions on Ministry of
Education’s failure to budget for or supply pads to all girls to increase their
school attendance. These debates come in the wake of also another controversial
issue of the “the presidential handshake” in which a group of government
officials were alleged to have received huge sums of money in reward for
winning two major oil cases. The public seemed at pain in trying to understand
why the ministry of education would fail to provide pads for girls in school
while only a few government officials who draw monthly salaries from government
would receive allegedly 6 billion shillings in reward. Public debates and
questions were then directed to “why can’t ministry of education provide pads
for all girls when government can find 6 billion for a handful of paid
officials?” But is this the right question to ask? Here is why I don’t think
so!
In the context of education sector that is
at the heart of the conversation on pads today, we have seen that the gender gap in primary school at enrollment has
been almost closed, but that girls from the least wealthy households have a low
transition to secondary school due to poverty and negative social norms issues
of child marriage, teenage pregnancy and so forth. We also know that Girls miss
an average 48 days in an academic year due to menstruation hygiene[1]. Hence girls tend to lag behind the boys as
they miss four days of school each month, i.e. 10% to 20% of the school days[2].
Of course, there
are many other reasons why girls drop out of school. Sociocultural practices
and beliefs also make it difficult for adolescent girls to continue their
schooling in case of child marriage or pregnancy. It is also important to note
that girls, and particularly younger girls, have fewer social assets than their
male counterparts such as reliable peer networks, safe spaces in the community
to gather and meet friends, and access to media and public messaging.[3]
Having said this
therefore, the question around government handing out pads to all girls seems
unrealistic, irresponsible and unsustainable. It promotes tokenism and a type
of dependency that takes away dignity from girls. In the long run, it can
institutionalise other elements of parenting too. Also tackling the debate in a
manner that mixes issues of corruption in government and menstruation makes us
miss the real opportunity to solve this problem of pads for our children. We should
talk against corruption always; just as we should talk about sustainable supply
of pads to our children, regardless of whether or not billions shillings are
misappropriated.
Pads can be
provided in schools by senior women/men teachers as part of emergency. I have
two suggestions on how government can make it easy for girls in schools and out
of schools to access and use pads and I will discuss it in a later paragraph
below.
In asking
government to supply pads to all girls, we must first of all understand that two
factors remain ideally constant in all of this—the fact that the girls and
women will continue to menstruate monthly and that they have been doing so
since the existence of human race; and the fact that parenting role, or at
least some form of parenting and responsibility happens (should happen)
irrespective of the level of social and economic status of the family. This does
not in any way negate the fact that the concept of parenting in the changing
context of society today is increasingly under threat from various factors
including the growing poverty disparities. It is also important to mention that
many irresponsible parents have simply abandoned parenting under the guise of
poverty, when in fact, they are just not interested in taking responsibility of
bringing up children in this changing and difficult context. Not providing pads
to your daughter, be it modern pads or the locally made (out of cotton cloths)
is bad parenting. Government cannot or should not parent your child for you
when you are still alive.
I grew up during
the war in northern Uganda where we did not have access to modern pads even if
the parents could afford them then. I saw girls being taught by their peers or
responsible adults how to cut and stitch cotton materials—every girl had at
least 3 of these and would wash and reuse them. This was not necessarily the
most hygienic approach, but it kept girls going.
So, I propose to
the government and the line ministry of education the following:-
- 1. Remove taxes on locally produced pads, including reusable pads as well as taxes on the materials for making these pads in your upcoming budget and encourage local companies or “investors” to put money in the production of pads. This action should potentially bring the cost of a packet of pads (with at least 10 pieces) to UGX500 – UGX800 hopefully. This means that in one term of three months, households would spend roughly UGX1500 to UGX3100 for the non-reusable pads; and much less, I suppose for the reusable ones.
- 2. Ministry of Education can issue a circular within a matter of days to all schools, including private schools to purchase at least 3 cartons of pads, depending on the school population of girls per month/term. This issue can then be inserted, with a stroke of a pen, in the check list of school inspection for the inspectors to follow through. Budget from where? For government schools, the ministry can ring fence a small amount of money within the school facility grant to schools. The amounts I am talking about here, are so insignificant, so small that it will even disappear within the overall Ministry budget.
With these emergency
pad allocation per school, girls could be provided with pads as part of
emergency relief—for instance when the menstruation starts while you are in
school, or when your dress gets soiled and you did not carry enough supply to
last you for the day etc.
With this, the
critical question to ask government is: where is its commitment to sustain its existing
policy directions around UPE & USE? For it is not a lack of money, not a
lack of technical expertise to ensure all girls do not miss classes due to menstruation.
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