Challenge:

Let’s recognize and felicitate who break the silence such inhuman practice of menstrual restriction.-Dr.Nandini Desai: Dean: M P Shah Government Medical College. Jamnagar.

Health and hygiene of women has been one of the important concern over the years. The awareness about menstrual hygiene and the importance of using sanitary napkins is absent. 80 to 90% of women in rural India do not have access to sanitary napkins and use alternatives like pieces of rag, ash, sand and husk. As a result, almost 1 in every 4 adolescent girl in the country quits school when she hits puberty. Poor menstrual hygiene is also responsible for almost 70% of reproductive diseases in India. Using unclean cloth during menstruation can increase the risk of infections by up to 200%. The worldwide incidence of cervical cancer is approximately 510,000 new cases annually, with approximately 288,000 deaths worldwide. In India, every year 122844 cases and 67477 death And 334 cases per day 185 deaths every day, It means per 8 minutes one women’s death. Poor menstrual hygiene can cause fungal infections, Reproductive Tract Infection and Urinary Tract Infection which might lead to cervical cancer. Women who practice unhygienic practices are also vulnerable to infertility.

Why should lack of sanitary napkins and superstitions stand as a barrier for Indian women?  

How works “Safe Health and Hygiene” Project : “Protect Girl” Movement Chaitanya Charitable Trust want to ensure that every girl in this state and country has access to sanitary napkin in their homes, schools, nearby hospitals and want to educate them about the significance of wearing these pads and the diseases that could result from them neglecting to wear it. Further, Chaitanya Charitable Trust want to educate them about the importance of Menstrual Hygiene and girl child education and how periods need not be a barrier in women’s life to explore her horizons. The main motto behind this project is to create awareness about sanitary napkins, easy availability of sanitary napkins and to suggest the proper use during menstruation and proper disposal of sanitary napkins.  How to solve the issue : In first phase we Chaitanya Charitable Trust have a plan to adopt 10,000 underprivileged girls/women of urban/rural Jamnagar District and plan for access free of cost/law cost sanitary napkins every month to 10000 girls. To achieve our target we need your support and encouragement. (In second phase we would like to reach 100000 girls/women) We are also going to start a law cost Sanitary Napkin Manufacturing unit, and work for Menstrual Hygiene Awareness, we have divided our need partly to cover all activities, and anyone can assist any part and support the Safe Health and Hygiene Project. 

12% of the India’s 355 million menstruating use sanitary napkins. Over 88% of the women resort to shocking alternatives. It’s time to change the numbers. -Dr.Atul Vekaria. President : Indian Medical Association Jamnagar Chapter.

Objectives:

1. Menstrual hygiene and management is essential to ensure that adolescent school going girl’s everyday lives and education are not interrupted by menstruation. It ensures that they continue with their daily routines such as going to school or doing household chores. It can also prevent potential situations of embarrassment for them and in turn, make them feel confident about their body. In this sense, maintaining proper menstrual hygiene is important for their wellbeing and development. The main aim of Menstrual Hygiene is to break the taboos associated with it and raise awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management for women and adolescent girls in the urban and rural areas.
2. Implementation of MHM in schools will have better school attendance of adolescent girls as they will get sanitary pads at a reasonable price as and when needed.
3. In the absence of a proper disposal system, the sanitary pads may be dumped in open air or dumped in the toilets, thus sometime the sewage lines may also get chocked up. Proper disposal of used sanitary pads will have better sanitation in the surrounding area. To make people also aware about disposing the pads in the incinerator machine, so that they get a habit of throwing the pads into the incinerator and help in sustainable development. Introduce law cost incinerator.
4. To create awareness in school, college and community in the girls/women (who aren’t poor) to sponsor the slum girls/women by donating Rs500 and giving them pads for a year.

This is the time when our Indian women are ready to break all taboos and put her in equality in modern society. -Dr.Chandrika Tanna. Gynaecologist. Jivandeep Hospital and Polyclinic.

Mission Statement:

Facilitation of adequate of safe menstrual hygiene management.

Methodology:

• Reaching the slums and villages: For promoting awareness for use of sanitary napkins in the urban slums and rural area and more importantly the poor community girls and women, it is very important to make a plan to reach school and college at urban slum and villages. We shall plan to use of print media, social media and organise workshop, rally, wall paint, stickers, street play, exhibition, workshop and seminar and will organise innovative event etc.
• Dissemination of information: This would be done through various ways like taking support from the volunteers, peer leaders of the group in the local communities.
• School level awareness: A good proportion of the adolescent girls attend the schools. It would be advantageous for us to create awareness among these girls and involve in promotion of low cost sanitary napkin as directly by telling the importance about the same in their family and neighbourhood as well. This can be done through sessions and issue-based discussions with the girl students.

Target groups: 

• Adolescent girls (10-19 age group): Jamnagar and Dev Bhoomi Dwarka District and urban slum poCkets.
• Women (20-45 age group): Jamnagar and Dwarka District and urban slum pokets.