Over 80% of India's women do not have access to hygienic material/sanitary pads for menstrual protection. Lack of awareness and affordability leads to women using sand, ash, rags or dirty cloth instead of sanitary pads, thus leading to blistering, soreness, infections and long-term reproductive health issues. This problem has been addressed through the given project that focuses on building awareness about menstrual health and hygiene by training young local women leaders to raise awareness about menstrual health and hygiene and generate income through selling low-cost sanitary pads locally.
To bring about increased awareness about Menstrual Hygiene and promote the use of sanitary napkins among women and adolescent girls, meetings were regularly in the targeted areas.
Through tutorials on menstrual health (http://www.awagindia.org/creating-impact/health-awareness/) coupled with dialogue and discussion, a large number of myths and problems regarding menstrual health issues, hygiene and related topics were explained and demystified by the facilitator.
Women can also avail of low cost sanitary napkins through the Mobile App (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.awag).
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Awareness raising meetings were held to spread awareness of menstrual hygiene among women.
The issue of women’s health is linked to the issue of women atrocities. This is so because there is utter disregard towards women’s health and wellbeing. Furthermore, women too have internalized their subordinate status as a result of which they lack self-respect and are known to ignore their own health. Malnutrition, frequent childbirth and high morbidity depict the poor health status of women. In addition to lack of proper medical care due to poor financial conditions and the apathetic attitude of the family, women have to rely on home cures. All these are forms of indirect violence inflicted on women.
Healthcare has been an important activity wherein AWAG constantly emphasizes on women’s rights over their bodies and to oppose violence inflicted on them. AWAG has linked the issue of women’s atrocities with their health issue. Therefore, the organisation’s health activities are linked to atrocities on women wherein all necessary components are woven in.
The content of these meetings focused on ......
The resultant effects of the interactions and learning derived by the participating women through the meetings has led to women gaining exposure and knowledge about the process of menstruation and slowly and steadily overcoming their superstitious beliefs attached to it.
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Awareness Meetings on Health, Nutrition and Menstrual Hygiene:
In order to spread awareness for improving their nutritional and health status, AWAG conducted meetings for adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18 years. These meetings covered adolescent girls from the areas of Bapunagar in Ahmedabad. The participants were provided with information on health, family welfare and menstrual hygiene.
The content of these meetings focused on ......
Through tutorials on menstruation (http://www.awagindia.org/creating-impact/health-awareness/) coupled with dialogue & discussion, a large number of myths and problems of adolescent girls regarding menstrual health and hygiene were demystified by the facilitating team of AWAG.
At the end of the meetings, the participants stated that they were happy to have gained some new knowledge.
THANK YOU!
MENSTRUAL HYGIENE – A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE
A woman’s menstrual health is crucial to her well-being and also to the well-being of her family and community. But often, mindsets, customs and institutional biases prevent women from getting the menstrual health care they need. Menstrual hygiene continues to be amongst the most challenging development issues today. Menstruation is associated with the onset of puberty in girls and many a times, it brings with it rules, restrictions, isolation and changed expectations from the girls by the society. This changed attitude towards girls such as restrictions on their self expressions, schooling, mobility and freedom has far reaching consequences on the mindset of women.
Menstruation is still considered a taboo in the Indian society. Even today, the cultural and social influences on people create a major hurdle in ensuring that the adolescent girls are given proper knowledge on menstrual hygiene. Mothers are also reluctant to talk about this topic with their daughters and many of them lack scientific knowledge on puberty and menstruation. The main reasons for this taboo still being relevant in the Indian society are high rate of illiteracy especially in girls, poverty and lack of awareness about menstrual health and hygiene. Only less than 18 per cent of Indian women use sanitary pads.
In some families, menstruation is being perceived as an unclean or embarrassing thing, extending even to the mention of menstruation both in public and in private. Most girls even hide themselves out of fear or embarrassment and a majority of them cannot afford to buy hygienic sanitary pads. A large number of girls in many less economically stable families drop out of school when they begin menstruating. More than 77 per cent of menstruating girls and women in India use an old cloth, which is often reused, ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and husk sand during periods.
During their menstruating days, women are prohibited from participating in day-to-day activities. She is prohibited to enter the kitchen or a temple as people believe that anything she touches will go bad or rot. But the truth is that a menstruating woman is going through a natural and healthy biological process.
The objective of this project is to create awareness on the issue of menstrual health and hygiene and so also promote the use of sanitary napkins among adolescent girls and young women. The awareness sessions provide them with the know-how on how to handle menstruation, improve knowledge of personal hygiene and boost confidence by answering unanswered questions through interactive and engaging training methods.
The period under discussion saw a total of 65 adolescent girls and women participate in the awareness meetings that were conducted.
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AWARENESS MEETINGS ON HEALTH AND MENSTRUAL HYGIENE
In order to spread awareness for improving their nutritional and health status, AWAG conducted meetings for women and adolescent girls. The participants were equipped with information on health, family welfare and menstrual hygiene.
The content of these meetings focused on ......
Through dialogue & discussion, a large number of myths and problems of adolescent girls regarding menstrual health and hygiene were demystified by the facilitating team of AWAG. Sanitary napkins were also distributed to all the participating women/girls.
The overall response of the meetings conducted was overwhelming. All the participants stated that they were happy to have gained some new knowledge. A number of them shared their concerns even after the workshop.
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