Floods, fear & missing pads: Girls dread relief camps

"THE dread of our menstrual cycle is ominously hanging above us," says a 17-year-old, standing in a makeshift relief tent at Mayur Vihar.

- SRESTHA SARKAR @ New Delhi

Her words echo the struggles faced by countless teenage girls who, deprived of basic hygiene, find their dignity washed away in the floodwaters. In the relief camps, girls like Rani and Lakshmi, both Class 11 students, endure not only the physical devastation caused by the floods but also the humiliation of living without privacy, hygiene or a safe space. Economic hardship has compounded their misery. For many, a sanitary napkin has become a luxury too costly to afford.