Menstrual Hygiene Project
Introduction to Menstrual Hygiene
In recent times one major aspect is the over powering requirement for an understanding and creating awareness on Menstrual Hygiene. It is very important to remove the taboo which has been created over many decades about this being a topic not to be discussed as well as removal of words like dirty. Girls are not given any education in this area and continue to follow the same old methods which their great grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers did.
Keeping this in mind we decided to start a project for educating women and girls on issues in relation to menstrual hygiene and disorders. The idea is to educate inspire and empower. As a beginning we decided to hold meetings to educate women and girls in the communities in relation to menstrual hygiene.
During meeting with women, we identified a few women who were keen to start working on the project. The idea was to start a self help group so that the women would make the napkins and we could help them in selling and the profit would be for them .We would also help in setting up the infracture and initial cost of raw material. After few hiccups this project is finally taking off. It took a lot of meetings to make the ladies in the community understand the concept of this being their project and their work.
We will continue to conduct regular awareness raising meetings not only in Lal Kuan but also in different areas of Delhi as well as outside. This will have a dual purpose of bringing about a much-needed change in the whole thinking about menstruation being a dirty aspect of a women’s life as well as environmental cleanliness by the use of bio degradable sanitary napkins.
Process of Making Napkins
After our initial meeting we started exploring the idea about what type of unit to set up in community which would help in empowering the women in being able to may be make and sell sanitary napkins which would be hygienic; bio degradable; as well as cheap.
After a little research we learnt about Vatsalaya Foundation at Vadodara founded by Shyam Bedekar and his wife Swati, and that the organization has over the last one decade been working in the area of menstrual hygiene. They have pioneered the making of cheap bio degradable sanitary napkins, simple machineries for manufacturing as well as simple incinerators. They presently have over 150 units all over India. So, we decided to collaborate with them for their technical knowhow as well understanding on awareness raising.
Traning of Making Napkins
We Realize That:
- Women and girls generally suffer from different diseases due to their ignorance on self-cleanliness and hygiene during menstruation.
- Poor menstrual hygiene is reported to be one of the reasons for the high prevalence of STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and RTI (Reproductive Tract Infections) in our country.
- This is mainly due to lack of awareness.
On the Other Hand:
- Biodegradable sanitary napkins use natural fibre…our sanitary napkins use banana fibre.
- The fear of various infections and diseases is minimal.
- Are environmentally friendly and help in reducing pollution caused by napkins which don’t decompose and cause accumulation of non-degradable waste.
- Help in environmental cleanliness.
Importance of Biodegradability:
- Use of Non -Biodegradable sanitary napkins which have some form of plastic is a major health hazard.
- It can also cause diseases such as Ovarian Cancer, Damage to the Immune System, Impaired Fertility, And Pelvic Inflammatory disease etc.
- Also, for the environment a single non-bio- degradable sanitary takes nearly 500 to 800 years to decompose.
