A nice breezy evening under the moon light with two torches. We were discussing about menstruation openly, frankly and loudly!!!!
I walked through the narrow lanes, climbed up the staircase and reached a small terrace in a slum where a lot of people involved in sex work live … There were no street lights but the big fat moon was shining above in its majesty.
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“कोई कोई एक कपड़ा चार बार इस्तेमाल करे है, कोई दस बार.” (some of us use one cloth 4 times while others use it 10 times). Another woman said, “माहवारी समस्या लगती है. अपनी समस्या किस्से कहे, अपने मर्द से भी नहीं कहे सकतें. जब कपड़ा गंधा भी मिल जाता है. धो कर सुखा लेते है माहवारी के लिए.” (Menstruation seems like a problem.
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“Even today at times of emergency while working in the field or when cloth is not available we use leaves from local Sal Trees.” The women of Koi tribe, Sugapada village of Daringbadi block, Odisha recently spoke to Goonj about their challenges around menstruation. Popularly called the Kashmir of Odisha; the Daringbadi block is surrounded by valleys,
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A group of women clad in the graceful traditional Rajasthani attire walked into Goonj’s Delhi processing center, it was a sight to behold. Their simple yet elegant disposition effortlessly attracted us. These women had travelled all the way from Barmer, Rajasthan along with Care India team to see Goonj’s work, especially our menstrual hygiene initiative NJPC,
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A girl from Miranda College, Delhi University said, “I have never bought a pad by myself.” You may find it strange but it’s true and unfortunately she was not the only one in the room saying the same thing.. Another girl in the room said “When I first came to study at the college from another town my mother gave me four packs of Pads,
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The Dire Need
For generations, mothers and grandmothers across the world have used cloth as a sanitary pad. It’s only in the last few decades that the big brands have taken over, in the name of convenience of ‘use and throw’. Yet, even today if you ask most women in a village, ‘How many saris do you have?’ many will tell you,
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These are ironic times that we live in.. on the one hand, the country grapples with massive flooding in some states and on the other hand several other states reel under severe drought. Farmers are driven to commit suicide in many regions due to lack of water, failed crops and the burden of unpaid debts.
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Water has been a constant in our work across India; whether it is cleaning water bodies, digging wells or making irrigation canals. This elixir of life has been and is an urgent but unaddressed basic need of the masses we work with.
In the last couple of decades, although Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) has tragically become a synonymous of strife and conflict for the rest of the world,
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Living in the cities, many of us believe that our lives are very different from the people living in villages. Malls, flyovers and the rapid-paced technology does make our lives easier but some ‘basics’ tie us to the vast majority in rural India. The food on our table is one such ‘basic’, as is Water.
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An idea needs a fertile ground and careful nurturing to grow into a blossoming tree. This story is about the seed of Goonj’s work finding a verdant ground in a most unlikely place and how it turned into a lab for our experiments and innovations with material.. This story aptly comes from the heart of India;
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