At schools and Homes, the deeper physical and emotional impact and its effect on teen girls is surfacing on and off campuses.
Two issues dominate – the personal hygiene of growing girls and of exposure to sexual predation even inside their families. All of which multiplied during the intense days of the pandemic.
These issues came up at the Home for Girls that the Bon Secours nuns manage in their campus on Madha Church Road, Mandavelipakkam at an interaction that was arranged for the team of an NGO called Sanitation First UK this weekend.
This Home is home for orphans and the rescued from across the state. Just now, only the girls who attend senior classes locally are allowed to reside as per pandemic time regulations.
And the nuns invited the NGO to have a free interaction – to demystify myths and highlight facts about adolescence, puberty and menstruation.
Says Padmapriya Baskaran of Sanitation First UK, who led the evening’s interaction, “ I find girls at Homes or hostels are very bright and independent. And they are not shy of asking pertinent questions about their bodies and what’s happening to them. It is the women teachers who have reservations.”
The girls were given personal kits which are for long-term use. And if and when managers of the Home need rounds of interaction, they can call the NGO.
- Photo courtesy; Sanitation First
