Boys and men must become active participants in the menstrual hygiene movement. Their involvement is not about taking over spaces meant for girls and women, but about becoming supportive allies who challenge stigma, promote respect, and help create enabling environments.
Boys should grow into informed and empathetic men. Fathers should feel confident discussing periods and purchasing sanitary products for their daughters. Male leaders should champion policies and budgets that prioritize menstrual health.
Engaging men and boys is critical for transforming harmful gender norms and building communities where girls feel safe, respected, and supported. When boys are included in conversations about menstrual health, stigma reduces, empathy increases, and supportive behaviors become more common. Menstrual health education should therefore not be limited to girls alone-it must involve everyone.
However, awareness alone is not enough. We need robust accountability and sustained commitment. First, political goodwill is essential. Governments at national and local levels must prioritize menstrual health in policies, budgets, and public service delivery.
Menstrual hygiene should not depend solely on NGOs or temporary projects. It must be integrated into education, health, water and sanitation, and gender programming. Second, we need evidence-based data to inform action. Too many girls in rural communities remain invisible in policy discussions because their realities are underreported.
Third, financing matters. Without adequate investment, schools cannot build girl-friendly sanitation facilities, provide emergency menstrual supplies, or deliver comprehensive menstrual health education. Menstrual products remain unaffordable for many families struggling with poverty.
Governments and development partners must increase financing for menstrual health and hygiene interventions, especially in underserved rural areas. Finally, we must listen to the lived realities of girls and women themselves.
Policies and programs cannot succeed if they are designed without the voices of those most affected. Girls understand the barriers they face every day-fear of embarrassment, lack of privacy, pain management challenges, stigma, and economic hardship. Their voices should guide solutions.
Menstrual Hygiene Day should therefore be more than a symbolic celebration. It should be a call to action.
A period-friendly world is possible-a world where no girl misses school because of menstruation, where periods are discussed openly without shame, where schools provide safe and dignified sanitation facilities, and where boys and men stand as allies for gender equality and dignity.
Menstruation is not a women’s and girls’ issue alone. It is a community issue, a public health issue, a human rights issue, and a gender justice issue.