Many women have painful period cramps, and for some, they’re more severe than the others. At times, even getting out of bed seems impossible and those who can afford it choose to take a leave. However, that’s not a privilege most women have.

In a gut-wrenching revelation in Tamil Nadu, a Thomson Reuters Foundation exposé based on interviews with about 100 women in Tamil Nadu’s multi-billion dollar garment industry found all of them were allegedly given unlabeled drugs at work for period pains.

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Women who were having these pills also said that their health suffered. “They are depressing days and the pills helped (sic),” the factory worker in Tamil Nadu told Reuters. Women could not afford to let anything interrupt their work and get wages deducted, so they sought medicine from a factory supervisor.

The women are used to working in 10-hour shifts and pills helped them ease their period pain. 17-year-old, Sudha, took the painkillers – without any medical advice – and by the end of her first year of work, Sudha’s menstrual cycle had gone for a toss. The saddest part is, she is not the only one.

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Medical tests found that Sudha had non-cancerous growths that developed in and around the uterus. A doctor advised her to stop working and take rest.

But missing work was not an option for Sudha, as she was helping her mother – a ragpicker – pay back a loan of Rs 150,000 to local moneylenders.

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“Half my salary (6,000 rupees) would go in paying off the loan and a big amount on my trips to the doctor,” Sudha told Reuters. “It became a cycle I was not able to break. And even though my health became worse, I needed to keep working to pay the bills,” she added. 

The state government said that they would monitor the health of the garment workers. Many women said that it took them years to realise the damage that these painkillers were doing. According to the women, they were never warned about the side effects and the health problems like depression and anxiety.

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Some of them even suffered from urinary tract infections and miscarriages. Pills that were given to Thomson Reuters Foundation by the workers had no markings to show the brand, their composition or even expiry date.

Two doctors, analysed the pills and said that they were non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, that could relieve menstrual cramps but were known to have possible harmful side-effects if taken frequently.

Activists, academicians and doctors have raised concerns that female workers’ lives were allegedly being controlled from toilet breaks to periods, to keep production lines running.

Picture Credits: The Hindu

Inputs From Reuters