Pink Pad's primary focus is to distribute mensuration kits to underprivileged girls in the remote villages of Himalayan region. Each kit includes one year supply that contains 12 packets of sanitary pads, gloves, soap, pain killers and a guide book on usage and awareness. The aim of the project is to slowly remove the mensuration taboo, create health & hygiene awareness and give financial relief to families of these girls. Project plans to have a special focus on disabled and orphan girls.
Mensuration is a taboo topic across India, especially in Himalayan border region. The National Family Health Survey 2015-16 report shows that the use of sanitary napkins among Indian women is just 57.6%. Rural numbers are even worse. A bleeding/menstruating girl or a women is considered impure and dirty. During menstruation, they have to follow a set of rules & are often isolated as untouchables, unable to be with their family or go to school for the length of their periods.
Pink Pad project will not only provide hygienic sanitary napkins kit for an entire year but will also help create awareness. It will educate the mothers and girls on the importance of using a clean napkin instead of rags, ashes and husk sand. Use of the pink pad kit will prevent diseases and will enable girls to attend school during their periods. Women who are daily wage earners on farms etc will not have to miss work or their income.
The project will reach to thousands of village girls and teach them & their families the importance of hygiene during periods. Over a period of time it will help remove the taboo around mensuration and this will enable and empower girls. These kinds of campaigns have encouraged local village women to start their own small units of manufacturing low cost sanitary pads that could provides supplies & jobs for local village women and girls. Hence the introduction of such projects is very important.
This project has provided additional documentation in a XLSX file (projdoc.xlsx).
