35-year-old Geeta Kanu works in a Julekha Nagar tea plantation. For a long time, she has been suffering from various physical problems including itching in the uterus, severe pain in the lower abdomen, and white discharge. And to get rid of these, the doctor of the Upazila Health Complex has advised the use of sanitary pads along with medicines.
Geeta Kanu uses scraps of old sarees on her menstrual days. He has to work in the tea garden for eight to ten hours a day. And at this time, this woman cannot even change the piece of cloth used during menstruation. Even during menstruation, she has to hold her urine due to a lack of adequate sanitation system which is very harmful to her health.
Gita bathed in the water of the canal in the garden to reuse the used menstrual cloth. Again, many people wash their daily drinking water with the water of that canal, which environmentalists think is dangerous for human health as well as the environment.
About 400 other women workers work with Geeta in the Julekha Nagar tea garden. Most of the people I talk to are suffering from some kind of uterine problem.
According to the Bangladesh Tea Board and Tea Workers Union, there are a total of 256 tea gardens in the country. 92 tea gardens in the country are in the Moulvibazar district. 70% of the more than 122,000 tea workers working in the tea gardens are women. And in Srimangal, visiting a few gardens including Kharyaura, Hooglichra, and Lakhaibagan, you can see that there is no sanitation system for women workers. Nor is Bagan providing them with any health benefits during menstruation. Due to this most women are suffering from reproductive health problems.
Nigat Sadia Director of USHA has been working with garden workers for a long time.
Nigat said that in 2019, an NGO on women's reproductive health conducted a camp with 250 women in Khadim Nagar tea garden where 13 women were diagnosed with uterine cancer. Worryingly, there is no sanitization system to protect the reproductive health of these working women. He added, in some gardens, toilets are being used by both men and women. And still, most of the gardens do not have good toilet facilities, no pad or hygienic is provided by the garden during the monthly period. And it is impossible for them to buy pads with low income.
A survey found that almost all of the workers were suffering from various chronic illnesses. Fifty percent of them receive treatment at dispensaries, 20 percent at home or from Quakers, and 20 percent at government hospitals. In the case of women workers, they do not want to seek medical help due to taboos related to menstruation. And by the time they go to the doctor, their disease has progressed to a very serious stage. For this, it is necessary to check their reproductive health regularly, said Tamisra.