Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 27

At a time when the Covid numbers are still worrisome, a bunch of youth from the posh Cool Road area, who had started a drive ‘Stop the Spots’ some five years back, have continued the practice of making and distributing sanitary pads among slum dwellers.

Jaanvi Singh (18), who has been leading the drive, says that Covid has not stopped her from making girls aware of the need for menstrual hygiene. She says that she has just modified her style of functioning due to which her reach has only grown bigger these days. “These days, my family has been helping out the poor across the district by providing them dry ration, masks, soaps and sanitisers. So, I have been adding sanitary pads from my side so that the girls in those areas also get the home-made pads that we are making for them,” she discussed.

Why 28/5?

• To create social awareness about maintaining menstrual hygiene, a Germany-based group had launched Menstrual Hygiene Day in 2014. The aim of this day is to change the social stigma and taboos associated with menstruation
• May 28 was chosen to observe Menstrual Hygiene Day because on average the menstrual cycle for most women is 28 days in length and the menstruation period for most women is for five days each month. Hence, the date chosen was 28/5
• The theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2021 is ‘Calling for more action and investment in menstrual health and hygiene now’
• As per National Family Health Survey, as many as 62% of the young women in the country, in the age group 15 to 24 years, still use cloth for menstrual protection. Over 300 million women in the country do not use sanitary napkins during menstruation owing to lack of availability, awareness and affordability

Talking about her changed strategy, the Welham School pass-out said, “I was a boarder earlier and could run my project only in the vacation. But I have been free for almost a year and a half and have been at home. In fact, everyone, including my 13-year-old brothers, my mother and my grandmother too are helping me make the pads out of cotton and a gauge. From one pack of cotton and a gauge, we are able to make 150 pads. It takes less than a minute to make a pad. So, we have been able to make a good numbers of pads on our own. Earlier, we used to hire some girls for the job at home but we could not let them inside our house in these days for fear of spread of Covid.”

Her mother Reeti Singh, who too is a part of ‘Pad gang’ as they are more popularly known as, too shared, “Since the demand has grown and we are not able to cater to large numbers, we have recently also started distributing just the raw material to the girls so that they can make their own pads. We have now trained many girls in the slum areas on how to make their own pads and keep about 15 pads ready three-four days before their periods are to start. Since the people in slum dwellings around our house are aware that we have the sanitary pads ready, many girls and women are also coming to our place every month to get them.”

She added that the best thing in their campaign was that the talk of menstrual cycle was no longer a taboo in the house. “Even our drivers and helpers take pads from me for the women members in their family, she said

Like Jaanvi Singh, there are some other NGOs who have been taking on similar projects for maximum coverage. Manan Sharma, a collegiate who runs NGO Girl Up India, too said she and around 24 girls of her age group have come up with a fund raiser project Adhikar under which they are doing online events like zumba, music concerts and health awareness workshops and funds were being collected from all participants.

“We are donating these funds to NGO Bala which is providing us a pad kit worth Rs190 each. We are distributing these kits to the girls from underprivileged families.” The Innerwheel Club members too have set up sanitary pad dispensers in the schools for differently able children but they are surely not in use at the moment. NGO Khwahish run by an NRI based in Nawanshahr too had been distributing sanitary pads in many schools of the district and had set up dispensers and disposable units too but somehow reaching the girls in Covid times has been a bit difficult now.