Enhancing menstrual hygiene: Impact of toll-free referral services on adolescent girls

Adolescence is one of the stages of human development in which many changes occur in the human body at physical, cognitive and emotional level. It is a phase in which a person changes from childhood to adulthood. According to UNICEF reports 2022, there will be 1.3 billion adolescents worldwide which constitutes 16% of the global population. India has the biggest teenage population, almost 253 million. As per the report of the census of 2011, India has the most second populated country in the world have an adolescent population 25,32,35,661 which comprises 20.9% of the total population. Menstruation is part of the female reproductive cycle that starts when girls become sexually mature at the time of puberty, and so it is essential that females are able to manage menstrual bleeding hygienically. It has been estimated that half of the female population is reproductive globally, and at any given time about 25% of them will be menstruating. When the adolescent girls attain their first menstruation in known as menarche and majority of the teenage feel horrible due to lack of knowledge. Menstruation is a natural process in a woman’s life that needs special care from a physical and psychological point of view. In order to live a healthy, productive and dignified life, women must be able to manage menstrual bleeding hygienically (Gultie et al., 2014). In the present study, researcher will analyse the impact of social work intervention (Referral service of Toll-free number) that provides to the adolescent girls of the schools of district Samba (Jammu and Kashmir) on menstrual hygiene. It also focuses on the challenges and barriers faced by the adolescent’s girls. Multistage random sampling method will used in this study and sample will take from the 9th and 10th class school going girls of ten Government High Schools of district Samba. Researcher found that the majority of the respondents feels hesitate to make calls and to talk about their problems they faced. That means the respondents feel shy and still follow the socio-cultural stigma not to talk about the menstruation freely. Even in this era of 21st century there is rigidity of taboos still persist, adolescent girls not to talk freely of their menstrual problems.