Runaway inflation has left many working class women in Myanmar unable to afford feminine hygiene products – putting their health at risk – while they must also contend with stigma and shame.
By FRONTIER
The third week of every month fills garment worker Ma Lwin with dread. Her period usually falls at that time, and for several months she hasn’t had enough feminine hygiene products at hand.
Between rampant inflation and her low salary at a factory in Yangon’s East Hlaing Tharyar Township, Ma Lwin has been forced to cut back from three to four pads per day to just one.
“With overtime, I can get K230,000 [US$35 at the market rate] at most in a month. It’s hard to cover my hostel fee and food, so I can’t afford all the menstruation products I need,” the 32-year-old told Frontier, asking to be identified by only part of her name due to the personal nature of the topic.
Before the economic crisis caused by the 2021 military coup, working class women like Ma Lwin could buy a cheap pack of eight or 10 pads for just K400, but now the price has risen to between K1,500 and K2,000 per pack.
Limiting herself to just one pad during working hours, which with overtime can last from 7am to 6pm, Ma Lwin has found an alternative – but one that puts her health at risk. Instead of sterilised menstrual pads, she often sews makeshift pads with pieces of cloth discarded at her factory.
“I save scraps of fabric and then I sew a pad-sized bag. I wash these small pieces with water before using them, but in emergencies sometimes I have to use them without washing,” she said.
Health professionals advise against using these self-made pads without sterilising them because of the danger of infections.
A doctor who used to work at North Okkapala General Hospital in Yangon told Frontier that she only recommends using self-made pads after boiling all materials and drying them under the sun.
“The area around the female part is extremely sensitive and susceptible to diseases. Using unclean pads may cause sores through irritation, which can lead to urinary tract infections. This may lead to serious health risks such as infertility,” said the doctor, who in 2021 joined the mass strike of civil servants protesting the coup.
Ma Lwin said she knows about the health risks, but she has no choice. She has been fortunate so far, suffering only occasional irritation. But her friend Ma Cho Mar, also a garment worker, has not been so lucky. She had to go to a private clinic after suffering an acutely painful urination.
“It was really painful, I couldn’t urinate at all. The doctor told me it was an infection caused by fungus from unclean pads. Due to the heavy rains, my self-made pads were not as dry as they should have been,” Cho Mar told Frontier.
Despite this, the 25-year-old continues using self-made pads because, like Ma Lwin, she cannot afford to buy enough menstrual hygiene products.
“I’ve boiled them after washing them since then. But it’s not possible to dry the pads under the sun because I live at a hostel and feel too ashamed to hang them in front of other people. So I dry the pads in my room and I’m worried the fungus could appear again,” she said.
No leave for female workers
Daw Khin Thandar Moe, a member of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar’s central committee, told Frontier that many female workers in the garment sector are facing the same problem.
“As they work sewing cloths, they often make pads from discarded fabric. We often hear about workers suffering health problems as a consequence,” she said.
Female garment workers, who sometimes work while standing, often feel serious abdominal pain during their periods. But according to Khin Thandar Moe, supervisors don’t give leave days to workers who request it during menstruation.
“Supervisors verbally abuse workers saying things like, ‘It’s not only you who suffers menstrual pain. Don’t make a big deal out of this’. They yell at workers and tell them to quit the job right away when they ask for leave. In reality, leave is their right under the law,” Khin Thandar Moe said.
A female supervisor at a shoe factory in Yangon’s West Hlaing Tharyar Township told Frontier that supervisors can’t give leave for menstrual pain because of the high ratio of female workers in the garment sector. According to the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, between 85 and 90 percent of Myanmar’s garment sector employees are women, most of them aged 19-27.
“Many will follow if we give leave to one. If we don’t meet the targets, the factory manager puts pressure on us, the supervisors, and salaries are reduced. That’s why it’s difficult for us to allow them to take leave,” she said.
Labour activists have demanded that factories supply pain relievers and menstruation pads to their workers, but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.
A woman working at the Tianjin Fashion Milestone factory in West Hlaing Tharyar told Frontier that her factory has a clinic and a nurse, but no medicines. “It’s just for show, the clinic doesn’t treat us well or give us any medicines,” she said.
The factory has has around 1,400 mostly female workers and produces for the Polish brand Sinsay, she said. Frontier contacted the publicly listed phone number of the factory but it wasn’t operative.
She has also reduced her use of menstrual pads in the past four months. She complained that she feels insecure and undignified during her period.
“We have no time and no extra pad to change because we are working hard to meet our targets. When I have my period, I only wear a htamein [a Myanmar traditional skirt for women]. If menstrual blood stains the htamein, I turn it over and hide the stains. I also bring a length of cloth and wrap it around my waist on the way back from the factory,” she said.
An overlooked problem
Ma Thinzar Shunlei Yi, co-founder of the feminist organisation Sisters2Sisters, told Frontier that menstrual hygiene items are not given the priority they deserve.
“Women experience a lot of emotional stress when menstrual items are out of reach. Only people who have experienced it will understand this feeling. People know they can starve if they don’t have food, but many people don’t understand the emotional pain that women feel if they don’t have their menstrual supplies,” she said.
S2S launched the Menstrual Strength Campaign two years ago to raise awareness and help women in need. The group makes reusable pads in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, and distributes them to poor communities, women in conflict areas and female fighters in the People’s Defence Forces, post-coup armed groups fighting to overthrow the regime.
“Humanitarian support that takes into account the health and psychological conditions of women in their daily lives is weak while the country is in chaos,” Thinzar Shunlei Yi said. “People are not used to talking about women’s menstruation … almost nobody in the revolutionary movement seems to recognise that this is a life-and-death issue for women.”
The United Nations Population Fund’s Myanmar programme agreed with Thinzar Shunlei Yi, telling Frontier that sanitary items for women are all too often overlooked when distributing non-food items to vulnerable populations during emergencies.
“There are approximately 5.02 million women of reproductive age in Myanmar who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, including access to essential sexual and reproductive health services. Displacement, restricted movement, and economic crisis exacerbate challenges for women’s access to menstrual hygiene products, impacting their menstrual health management and the well-being of women and girls,” a UNFPA official in Myanmar said.
The UNFPA distributed 50,000 “dignity kits” for women and girls affected by the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar last year. The kits include essential items like sanitary pads, soap, underwear and an assortment of hygiene products.
However, the organisation has faced logistical challenges. “Transporting sanitary pads, categorized as ‘medical items,’ presents significant challenges, severely hindering their distribution,” the UNFPA official added.
The regime often restricts the transportation of medical supplies in conflict areas, presumably to prevent them from falling into the hands of armed groups.
S2S has provided 2,000 reusable pads since its Menstrual Strength Campaign was launched two years ago, but Thinzar Shunlei Yi said that the organisation’s funds are limited.
“We don’t distribute reusable pads in the rainy season because they can cause health problems. We also face financial challenges,” she said.
S2S is trying to introduce silicone menstrual cups, that can be reused many times more safely, but many women are hesitant to use them because they are unfamiliar.
“It takes them about three months to get used to it,” Thinzar Shunlei Yi said.
Another barrier is the social stigma associated with menstruation and a lack of education.
“Men think that menstrual blood is unclean and disgusting; they see women as a low creatures just because of their menstruation. This kind of thinking is still very pervasive in our country … We need to break this culture, and raise awareness,” Thinzar Shunlei Yi said.
It’s so stigmatised that, shortly after the coup, young protestors successfully used clotheslines of menstrual pads and htamein to slow down police and soldiers, who refused to walk underneath them during protest crackdowns.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Committee of the FGWM is also trying to distribute menstrual pads to factory workers.
“Our federation distributes menstrual pads after receiving donations from donors. But we cannot provide many of them, we can only provide one or two packs to each worker. We would like to request the people to help us by sending menstrual items to communities in need,” Khin Thandar Moe said.
Despite these efforts, many women have never received any assistance. Ma Lwin said that she has never gotten any help for her menstrual health, and when she lacks menstrual supplies she sometimes hates herself for being born a woman.
“Sometimes I wish I was a man who doesn’t have to go through menstruation. I feel like it’s dirty and disgusting when I have no hygiene materials,” she said.
