International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

Material and Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional approach with an experimental design and the intervention was given to the experimental groups. The total sample consisted of 480 school going adolescent girls between the age group of 12 to 18 years belonging to rural areas of Varanasi district and tribal regions of West Garo Hills of Meghalaya. A self structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents before and after intervention. The intervention programme in the form of lectures, discussions, etc. was delivered for a period of three months in the selected schools. Paired t- test was applied on data for statistical analysis through SPSS software.

Results: The study revealed a notable deficiency in understanding certain aspects of menstrual awareness prior to the intervention. Both urban and rural respondents lacked knowledge regarding the significance of menstruation, with a prevalent misconception about the concept of 'bad blood' particularly among girls in rural areas. Additionally, respondents demonstrated a lack of knowledge regarding the origin or source of menstrual blood. However, they exhibited awareness regarding the duration of the menstrual cycle, menstrual flow, appropriate absorbents, and the frequency of changing sanitary napkins. Following the intervention, there was a substantial improvement in the awareness levels of respondents in both settings, as indicated by the post-test analysis (p= 0.001).