Menstrual Hygiene Awareness by Strengthening Livelihoods - Setting of low cost reusable cloth sanitary pad making units

Introduction: Menstruation is a normal, natural process that occurs in all healthy adolescent and adult women who haven't reached menopause. Even though it is a natural process, menstruation continues to be shrouded in misconceptions and perceived as a matter of extreme embarrassment in India. Menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and social restrictions for women as well as the girls. The menstrual health management problem rises in proportion because of lack of awareness about the usage of sanitary napkins. The high price of sanitary napkins makes it a low priority for women managing low income or poor households.

An initiative by Sparsh & the Area of Focus: Our efforts on bringing menstrual health & hygiene awareness is focussed on the tribal areas of Gadchiroli District. Located in the North-Eastern side of Maharashtra sharing state borders with Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The total population of the district is 10, 72,942 (50.45% male and 49.54% female population) with a literacy rate of 66.03%. (Census 2011, 2011) Out of the total population, 38.17% are considered as Tribal population belonging to either Gond, Madia, Pardhan or Kolam tribes. The vast majority of women and girls belonging to Gond and Madiya tribes, residing in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, use rags, leaves or mud instead of sanitary napkins. This is incoherence to the statistics provided by National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted during 2015-16 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which states that over 42.2% of women in India continue to use old fabrics, rags, dried leaves, sand, wood shavings and even ash during their period. The social taboo escalates in the tribal district of Gadchiroli as menstruating women are banished in a temporary hut outside village, known as gaokor, as they are considered impure. Gaokors, considered as public property, are not maintained and lack basic amenities like drinking water, proper toilets and bathroom. Given the location of the huts, it is not uncommon for wild animals to make an appearance, and there have been reports of women dying from snakebites while staying in gaokor. Women and adolescent girls live in it during their menstrual cycle and rely on family to bring them food and other items.

Need for the project: There is a lack of affordable menstrual products in tribal areas of Gadchiroli. Spending the menstruating days in a separate hut, gaokor, keeps women from participating in everyday household and socioeconomic activities, resulting in a loss of economic activity. This inhabitable kurmaghar or gaokor lack amenities required for fulfilling basic human needs. In order to succeed in banishing this practice in future, it is mandatory to offer economic empowerment to the women in addition to providing health awareness about proper hygienic methods to manage their menstrual health and hygiene. The project intends to provide a livelihood to tribal women by training them on making reusable cloth pads.

The envisaged project intends to build an enterprise model on a pilot basis in the tribal areas where women SHGs would be fostered to make reusable cloth pads. The business will be run the business with handholding support and overall supervision by the implementing organization i.e. SPARSH for a period of 1 year. The pilot project aims to generate awareness and demand for the low-cost sanitary napkins as an effective alternative to manage menstruation. Since, without availing effective alternatives for, girls and women will not be motivated to adopt new behavioural practices. Hence, the project will make sure production, promotion and use of the reusable cloth pad is done by the target beneficiaries themselves. However, awareness campaigns about the importance and advantages of using reusable cloth pads will be targeted at all sections of the society in order to slowly eradicate the practice of gaokor. The specific objectives of the project are as follows:

• Set up a reusable cloth pad making enterprise involving tribal SHGs
• Train 10 women per village to make reusable cloth pads
• Train at least 1 women SHG head members in the account and stock keeping
• Identify and train at least 2 Sakhi or Peer educators to in a village
• Undertake 1 awareness campaign per month about the importance of using reusable cloth pads and its maintenance
• Provide a free supply of reusable cloth pads for a period of 1 year in gaokor
• Develop old cloth drop-in and sorting centre at the SHG centre

After intensive training and awareness campaigns, SPARSH aims that the tribal women will be capable of producing high-quality reusable pads. Some of the specific outcomes of the project include:

• Establishing women run reusable cloth pad making enterprise
• Training at least 10 women per village to make reusable cloth pads
• 3 women, SHG head members managing the accounts and stock keeping of the enterprise
• 2 women working as Sakhi or Peer educators to in each village
• Organizing 12 awareness campaigns about the importance of using reusable cloth pads
• and its maintenance
• Initiating setting up of an old cloth drop-in and sorting centre at the SHG centre

The impact of these initiatives will be on at least 400-800 adolescent girls/women in 1 year, which we plan to expand in the forthcoming years.