When actress Taranjit Kaur and producer Chitra Subramaniam were buying groceries for the needy during the lockdown, one particular item caught their attention: sanitary pad. Menstrual hygiene is already a challenge in India. According to the National Family Health Survey report published in 2017, only 58 % of women of age 15-24 use a hygienic method of menstrual protection. The pandemic restricted access to sanitary pads for economically disadvantaged women. Taranjit and Chitra, hence, decided to address this problem.
The duo, with their friends, started ‘Pad Squad’, an initiative to distribute free sanitary pads in Mumbai. “Initially, we started with just our neighbourhood. But as we posted on social media, more people joined. We received over 10,000 pads in three days,” says Taranjit.
The Pad Squad now has 55 members from over 25 cities. They have distributed over five lakh pads.
Chitra has been to the slums in Shivaji Nagar, Juhu and Ambawadi in Mumbai. “With the lockdown, it was challenging to move around. But you have to go to these places to understand the problems of the people. Each place is a mini world in itself. You need to talk to the women there and explain menstrual hygiene to them.”
Taranjit reckons it’s not a one-shot solution. “You need to revisit these places, to get to know their issues. So, it’s better to identify an area and revisit it instead of providing scattering support.”
For this year’s Daan Utsav, a week-long philanthropy festival, Chitra and Taranjit requested the ‘padsquadders’ to keep in their houses, a ‘pad peti’, a box to collect sanitary pads. “The support was great. We managed to collect over 1.5 lakh pads in that week alone. From a 14-year-old boy to an 80-year-old woman, a lot of people took part in the initiative.”
Pad Squad also has a supporter from Nigeria. Ekemi Inyang, a human rights activist, will devise a similar programme and gather more ‘padsquadders’ in Africa.