60 Dignified Days for a Woman

Campus Ambassador Program launched

to involve youth in mainstreaming the issue of menstruation

Working for more than a decade on the issue of menstrual hygiene with our Not Just a Piece of Cloth initiative, Goonj recently launched the Campus Ambassador programme among the youth across colleges of India (August 2018).  Goonj is asking college students to get involved in changing the mindset around the taboos and culture of shame and silence around menstruation. Our belief is that when youth are actively engaged with the discourse on menstruation and understand how it affects women’s dignity and hygiene, it will accelerate the process of change where menstruation is considered a human issue rather than a women’s issue.

In the first year more than 30 Ambassadors have been chosen from across India to normalize the narrative on menstruation.  These include youth from Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and other states. For a year, they will engage in menstruation related specific activities like cotton cloth collection drive, identifying unheard voices, organizing events and fundraising. These activities will give the college students a ground-level exposure to the cultural, social and economic aspects which connect with menstrual practices of rural and urban women.

Ambassadors will be reaching out and interacting with women migrant laborers, domestic helpers, disabled women in urban contexts and documenting their voices and stories, which largely remain unheard in the larger discourse of MHM.

Kaniskha, an ambassador from Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur recently collected stories from women in Dindori area, backward area of Madhya Pradesh.

She talked to Radha Banwasi, a 46 year old who got her menstruation at the age of 14. When she told her mother about her bleeding her mother rushed her to the doctor. She later realised and told her about menstruation. Awareness at that time was low. Now, Radha makes pad at her own home. At first, people laughed at her but she learned it and now she sells pads at cheaper rates. On an average she sells 100 packets of pads every month.

Bijaya, another ambassador from MKCG Medical College, Odisha talked to some 13-18 year old girls in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack about menstruation and asked them questions about the stereotypes and silence on the subject that girls growing up in small towns and developing cities face.

Subhashree, one school going 13 year told her (daughter of her domestic help) she is barred from bathing in those five days apart from touching Pooja utensils and also not allowed to go out to play. She shared that she often skipped school because the leakon to her clothes would cause embarrassment time and again. She also mentioned the lack of toilets at her residence which meant having to wear the same drenched cloth for the entire day and getting to wash genital areas only during the bath after five days.

We are very excited about the programme and its outcomes. This is just the beginning… Goonj Campus Ambassadors are opening up the conversation on menstruation and are joining us in our efforts to break the shackles of this stigma that has plagued the lives of women for far too long.

Links:

• Cloth a viable option for menstruation