Pant Poverty: The Hidden Crisis Under Our Clothes
Pant Poverty is an issue that goes overlooked time and time again. Like underwear itself, it lies beneath the surface, with most of society unaware of what it truly entails. This is due to a lack of education surrounding it and the sensitivity of the topic, it is a frightening reality. Underwear is the one item of clothing that cannot be donated second hand and that charity shops cannot sell, making awareness on the subject invaluable for battling this crisis.
Pant Poverty is a term coined by Let’s Get Our Knickers in a Twist and is the state of not having enough clean and safe underwear to meet daily needs. For some, there is not an option of choice of underwear each morning, for others, there is no underwear at all and for people living in poverty, the need for safe and clean underwear is an issue that is overlooked frequently due to lack of knowledge and education surrounding this issue.
Pants are more important than just an item of clothing. It is a protective and safe barrier for women, a necessity . For many, we have the freedom to choose which style of pants to wear each day, but for women and girls living in Pant Poverty, it is a question of whether they can wear any underwear at all. This can affect their comfort, menstrual hygiene, and a feeling of dignity.
Underwear donations
So why is this not seen as a bigger issue?
Despite its severity, pant poverty has largely gone unaddressed and unacknowledged around the world because of a lack of education and awareness. Underwear concerns our ‘private parts’, so it’s seen as a ‘private’ problem so often an invisible one. Poverty hides beneath clothes, meaning its discomfort is unseen and easily ignored. Nobody knows how worn a pair of underwear is under their clothing, and therefore no one understands the discomfort and worries that come with poverty lying beneath the surface. But this ‘private’ conversation of pant poverty enforces the stigma that stops people from coming forward and asking for help.
The stigma surrounding pant poverty works against the support we should be providing for those who cannot afford a new pair of underwear the same way we support those in need of new shoes. Every person deserves to feel secure, and that starts underneath your clothes, with your underwear.
To give you some figures, in the UK, households in the lowest income decile only spend 40p a week on women’s underwear, whilst the underwear market was valued at approx. £1.9 billion in 2023 (STATISTA). The immense disparity between these households and the booming underwear industry means that the option of affordable underwear is not there. Underwear should not be marketed or viewed as a luxury item, but a necessary one for hygiene and comfort. Considering that charity shops cannot sell underwear, the main source of underwear in cases of pants poverty relies mostly on donations from organisations and charities. Donations are also crucial in providing women across the world in poverty with safe underwear, especially for those that live in war-torn countries, are displaced, or live in remote or impoverished areas that have limited or no access to these products. In 2019, UNHCR reported that only 37% of women and girls had satisfactory access to underwear in refugee camps. More specifically, Global One found that in camps in Syria and Lebanon, almost 60% of female refugees did not have access to underwear. These specific needs still tend to be overlooked and subsequently, the diseases and infections that are contracted from insufficient hygiene products and underwear.
Period Poverty and Pant Poverty go hand in hand. Globally, 1.2 billion lack access to safe menstrual hygiene products and This affects attendance to school, the risk of STD’s and UTI’s, and importantly, a girl’s comfort. Comfort is simple, but scarce for women in war torn countries, conflicts, refuge centres and shelters. In a refugee camp in Burundi, it was reported only 7% of women ‘always had’ underwear (IMHER), and with help and donations, these small but important comforts can change. Right now in Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ukraine, women’s rights are being violated and therefore their right to menstrual hygiene. According to UNFPA, ‘nearly 700,000 women and girls of menstruating age are facing a menstrual hygiene emergency’ in Palestine, where they are faced with severe shortages of menstrual products and WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene). Amidst one of the ‘most severe humanitarian crises in recent history’, bombing, starvation and all water systems damaged, period and underwear products are imperative yet forgotten necessities. These women and children in war torn countries around the world are forced to put their thoughts regarding hygiene to the side for the purpose of survival.
So, what can we do?
It is easy to feel that an issue like this is bigger than the impact you could ever make. But with more education and awareness of Pant Poverty, the impact you can have on the distribution of underwear and challenging the negative stigma is greater than you think. Donations can be made around the world for places where these women need them most, both in the UK and abroad.
LGOKIAT is a non-profit organisation that is tackling Pants Poverty and the stigma surrounding it one pair of pants at a time. To date, over 20,000 pairs of pants have been donated across 40 women’s shelters and centres globally and LGOKIAT isn’t stopping here. Donations contribute to the regaining of not just health and hygiene, but dignity and security that every person deserves. They can support women who are victims of domestic violence or addiction, sex workers, homeless women and children and refugees. The privilege of wearing a different, clean pair of knickers everyday gives you the privilege to spread awareness of this issue around the world.
A Let’s Get Our Knickers in a Twist donation to HM Prison Service
Let’s give the right to comfort back to women and girls. Let’s make it the bare minimum. Let’s end Pant Poverty.
Written by Freya Davey, Edited by Valentina Milne & Serena Chamberlain