Knowledge of Adolescent Girls Regarding Menstruation in Tribal Areas of Meghalaya

The present investigation was aimed at studying the awareness levels of menstruation and related aspects among adolescent girls. The study was conducted in Rongram block of West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya with 100 adolescent school going girls in the age group of 13 to 18 years. The respondents were selected randomly from secondary schools of five villages. A pre-tested and modified self-structured interview schedule was formulated and information on the knowledge related to menstrual aspects was collected. The results revealed that most of the girls were in the age group of 16 to 18 years and studying in tenth standard. The mean age at menarche was found to be 12.67 years. It was indicated from the results that the respondents had an average level of awareness of menstrual aspects. Girls did not know about the meaning of menstruation and associated it with bad/unclean blood. Girls were aware about different problems associated with periods, out of which pain in lower abdomen and backache were the common responses. Knowledge of hygienic practices during these times was found to be good. A significant association was found between menstrual awareness and ordinal position of the respondents. Age of the respondents and total family income seemed to have good correlation with their awareness regarding menstruation and related aspects. Address for correspondence: Ms Shipra Nagar Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development, College of Home Science, Dakopgre, Tura 794101, Meghalaya, Telephone: 09436160245 Fax: 03651-232728 E-mail: [email protected] SHIPRA NAGAR AND KH. R. AIMOL 28 mentally prepared to face it. A recent study by Swarnalatha and Vasantha (2007) on attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of adolescent girls on reproductive health revealed poor knowledge of reproductive health and its related aspects. A study by Gupta and Sinha (2006) on awareness about reproduction and adolescent change in school girls found out that majority of girls have only partial or incomplete knowledge of facts on menarche and on physical changes. A study by Mahajan and Sharma (2004) revealed that the overall knowledge about menarche was poor among the rural as well as urban adolescent girls. Inspite of the changing social and cultural norms and practices in the society, the girls and women especially in the tribal setting have less access to health care facilities. Thus information is often limited, wrong and confusing which makes the adolescents especially young girls to have incorrect notions and ideas which may lead to unsafe health practices. Against this background, the present study was undertaken to examine the awareness levels of adolescent girls on the aspects of menstruation.