Menstruation, Health and Hygiene

70% of mothers in India consider menstruation “Dirty”, 23% of girls in our country drop out of school due to the onset of periods, 71% of girls in India report having no knowledge of menstruation before their first period and more than 90% Indian fathers are unaware of how to deal with their daughter’s puberty. 

From an educational point of view, it was also come across in UNICEF report that the national educational curriculum focuses on biological aspects of menstruation rather than its proper management. It also lacks information on psycho-social changes and reproductive health or skill-based hygiene education (FSG 2016) and low capacity among teachers/front line staff on Menstrual Health and Hygiene.’  

We believe that women should take ownership of their menstrual health and hygiene by understanding their body and making informed choices. Our model is to create change agents which we call the “The Period Fellows”. They will be the people who will start the conversation regarding menstruation among their communities and work with a local group of facilitators whom we called " Community Resource Persons".

Community Resource Persons further mobilize the communities, forms groups of women and men in communities and adolescents in schools who will then undergo the menstrual health and hygiene sessions which includes basic physiology, processes like ovulation, menstruation, cultural beliefs and practices and how to enable conversation around menstruation within the communities. The fellowship is currently happening in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. For 2020 we are going to scale up the fellowship in most marginalized districts of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar which are Jhabua, Alirajpur, and Jamui respectively.  

Through the grassroots initiatives Sukhibhava was able to reach out to 20,220 adolescent & boys and 130,667 women & men across 7 states in India. We aim to educate 24,000 men and adolescent boys in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

i. Pradeep is 30 years old man lives in Satnami Nagar, Bhopal. After attending the sessions on Menstrual Health and Hygiene by Satyam Mishra (The Period Fellow’2019), he initiated the conversation with his wife around menstruation and got to know about her irregular menstrual cycle. He called Satyam and shared the information that his wife is having 15 days long periods, that too from last few months. After getting suggested by Satyam, Pradeep went to doctor to consult about his wife’s health. He regularly reach out to doctor for his wife’s health since then and do not take it for granted.

ii. Mr. Deepak Gaur, from the intervention area in Bhopal, initially came late for his first session, after attending half session, he requested the fellow to take another session in his community and commit that he will mobilise the men for the session. Soon after he organised the session with first group, Deepak felt it is important to every men to know the information delivered in sessions. He since then continue mobilising the community in and around his community. He voluntarily support the fellows in mobilising other men. 

We wish to see the increase in sexual reproductive health-seeking behaviour among the women and girls, increase in mobility of women and girls, normalisation of conversations about menstrual health in communities and schools and increase in leaders in the menstrual health ecosystem in India. This is only be possible if we will work equally with men and boys and other key stakeholders in the marginalised communities.