Sudha seldom thought about the pills she took to ease her period pains during 10-hour shifts as a seamstress in southern India. She could not afford to let anything interrupt her work and cut her wages. So, she sought medicine from a factory supervisor.
“They are depressing days and the pills helped,” said the factory worker in Tamil Nadu’s southern textile hub. But by the end of her first year of work, and after months of taking painkillers without medical advice, Sudha’s menstrual cycle had gone haywire aged 17–and she was not the only one.
A Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation, based on interviews with about 100 women in Tamil Nadu’s multi-billion dollar garment industry, found all of them were given unlabelled drugs at work for period pains, and more than half said their health suffered. The drugs were rarely provided by medical professionals, in violation of labour laws, and the state government said it would monitor the health of garment workers in light of the findings.
Many of the women said it took them years to realise the damage the medication had done as they were never warned about side effects–with health problems ranging from depression and anxiety to urinary tract infections, fibroids and miscarriages. Pills given to the Thomson Reuters Foundation by workers had no markings to show the brand, their composition or expiry date. But two doctors who analysed the pills said they were non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs –similar to ibuprofen and Advil– that could help relieve menstrual cramps but were known to have possible harmful side-effects if taken frequently.
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