Why we mark Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28

Menstrual Hygiene Day seeks to end the stigma surrounding menstruation.

Menstrual Hygiene Day, the global day for action to end period poverty and the stigma surrounding menstruation, is being marked today.

The theme this year is “making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030”.

The idea to mark Menstrual Hygiene Day was conceived by WASH United, a non-profit organisation based in Berlin. May 28 was chosen as Menstrual Hygiene Day in nod to the menstrual cycle -- which lasts 28 days on an average. Most women menstruate for five days in a month.

Now, Menstrual Hygiene Day has more than 830 partner organisations, including United Nations agencies, World Bank and hundreds of NGOs.

These organisations work to fight menstruation-related taboos, create awareness about challenges in accessing menstrual products, provide education about menstruation and period-friendly sanitation facilities and raise funds for large-scale action.

“All of this contributes to our overarching goal: to build a world where no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030,” read a message on the Menstrual Hygiene Day’s official website. “It’s not acceptable that because of a natural bodily function women and girls continue to be prevented from getting an education, earning an income and fully and equally participating in everyday life."

Several initiatives have been undertaken by Menstrual Hygiene Day's partner organisations to improve access to period products.

The United Nations Population Fund routinely distributes kits containing menstrual supplies and underwear -- called dignity kits-- to women in displacement camps, areas of conflict or places battered by natural disasters.

"Recently, UNFPA has distributed thousands of kits in humanitarian settings as a result of conflict (Ukraine and Moldova, northern Ethiopia) and natural disasters (Haiti, the Philippines, Tonga, Malawi and Mozambique)," the agency said.