Awareness about Menstruation and Menstrual Hygiene: A Comparative Analysis among Women of Haryana.

To assess the awareness of young girls and women about menstruation and menstrual hygiene from rural, urban and slum areas of Gurugram and Nuh district of Haryana. Acomparative cross-sectional study. The study was conducted among 240 young women of Gurugram and Nuh districts in Haryana, India, which were chosen on the basis of the female literacy rate of districts in Haryana. A pre-designed semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the data. The data was analysed using MS-Excel. Chi-square test, correlation and paired t-test were used as statistical tools to analyse the data. It was noticed that awareness regarding menstruation and menstrual hygiene was found low in Nuh (43.3%) and moderate in Gurugram (42.5%). Level of knowledge regarding menstruation and menstrual hygiene was found poor among respondents (84.2% from Nuh & 49.2% from Gurugram). Women from Gurugram practiced good menstrual hygiene practices (40.0%) whereas women from Nuh practiced poor menstrual hygiene practices (45.8%). Level of restrictions and myths related to menstruation was high among respondents from Nuh as compared to women from Gurugram. Women still lack sufficient awareness about this important bodily phenomenon, which leads to a variety of unsanitary menstrual practises and misunderstandings regarding menstruation. Through education programmes, young women's knowledge of menstruation and its significance in their lives can be increased. It was recommended that awareness programmes about menstruation and menstrual hygiene should be held in rural and underdeveloped areas so that young girls and women from these areas may appropriately manage their periods and have better reproductive health. Myths and taboos regarding menstruation should be debunked by making people aware about the logical facts of these myths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]