This year, to mark #MenstrualHygieneDay, Team Goonj decided to convert the day into a week-long celebration with over 4000 women across the villages of 10 states. 1.8 crore disabled women, more than 5 crore tribal women, 6.5 crore migrant women, 20+ lakh sex worker women.. These are some of the missed out voices that must be heard.. their menstrual challenges must come into the larger mapping of #MenstrualHygiene Management narrative. We are doing our bit.. working across urban and rural communities to fill gaps, to raise awareness..
Join us.. if you feel strongly about this. Write to us: [email protected]
Open dialogue on Menstruation
Stories from the field
Out of India’s 1.38 Billion population, women and adolescent girls constitute more than half the country, at 67.1 Million. Across the globe, the taboo around this basic is at the core of why women struggle with it every month. The lack of informed choice, access and affordability of menstrual product, the indignity of segregation and discrimination in those 5-6 days every month and the struggle for a private space, water etc. for managing it with dignity and hygienically; are only just a few of the many parts of this complex issue. We at Goonj first came to understand menstruation from the lens of cloth but more than 2 decades down the line as we listened to menstruators in the cities and villages across India, we learnt to see the deeply embedded indignities they face every month in the ecosystem of our society. In our small way, we have been working on these challenges, to address them systemically, to underline menstruation as a human issue, not just a women’s issue. Breaking the taboo around menstruation, gaining knowledge and spreading awareness about menstrual health and hygiene is the key to good reproductive, child, adolescent as well as maternal health. Chuppi Todo Baithaks happening in the rural pockets of India have been breaking taboos and educating women to achieve healthy menstrual hygiene practices and raise their voices against dated practices.
We are there.. Need you too..
Women of Odisha celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Week by binning their menstrual waste!
Where- Karpurharichandanpur Behera Sahi village in Purisadar Block, Puri
During monthly menstruation, women in the village would often walk up to the nearest pond and discard their used cloth and sanitary pads in and around it. Consequently, the area around the pond suffered from poor #sanitation, resulting in further health issues.
To commemorate #MenstrualHygieneWeek with Goonj and to address the ongoing challenge of disposing of #menstrualwaste, women from the village made a dustbin around the pond. They now have a designated clean space to dispose of their waste.
During the week, Goonj team worked with women from rural Odisha to take up many other projects like making kitchen gardens, #ChuppiTodoBaithaks (break the silence meetings) and canal digging and cleaning for better access to water.. across the state.
Women of Odisha celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Week by binning their menstrual waste!
Where- Karpurharichandanpur Behera Sahi village in Purisadar Block, Puri
During monthly menstruation, women in the village would often walk up to the nearest pond and discard their used cloth and sanitary pads in and around it. Consequently, the area around the pond suffered from poor #sanitation, resulting in further health issues.
To commemorate #MenstrualHygieneWeek with Goonj and to address the ongoing challenge of disposing of #menstrualwaste, women from the village made a dustbin around the pond. They now have a designated clean space to dispose of their waste.
During the week, Goonj team worked with women from rural Odisha to take up many other projects like making kitchen gardens, #ChuppiTodoBaithaks (break the silence meetings) and canal digging and cleaning for better access to water.. across the state.
The 3 big Misses in India’s menstruation work; One crucial underlined but Missed Out aspect is Women’s DIGNITY (acknowledging every woman’s right to dignity and respect) Women routinely face indignity, shame and humiliation, subjected to discriminatory practices considered impure and untouchable, during their menstruation. There’s little attention to what happens to the confidence, body awareness, sense of worth of countless women aging 12 to 50, subjected to these indignities every month. Two, the Big Miss even within the #menstrualproduct centric discussions, is that Cloth Pads are summarily rejected, even though cloth is a viable, biodegradable, reusable, affordable option, easily accessible to millions of women. All it needs is awareness about how to hygienically use and dispose of it. This can best be corrected with an environmental and sustainability lens to #MenstrualHygiene Management (MHM). Three, the Big Miss has also been about connecting women’s menstrual health with their general health and wellbeing and making menstrual health a big part of the reproductive health framework of India’s primary and secondary health care system. Do you agree? Tell us what you think? Write to [email protected]
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Cloth, MY Pads, Dignity Kits
Goonj’s 2-decade journey with cloth as a basic but neglected need led us to the understanding that for #menstruating women cloth is also a sanitary pad. The struggle of millions of women, for cloth, thus took a new meaning for us.
In 2003, we evolved MY Pad from the rapidly increasing urban surplus cloth and textile surplus.
That turning point has led to production of millions of cloth pads since. Over the years the entire circular economic loop has also led to providing #livelihood to hundreds of women making these pads.
These pads are called MY Pads and they come in a Dignity Pack of 8, together with a pouch (made out of used flex banners) for a woman to keep her used pad and panties for better hygiene.
To order a Dignity pack, write to us: [email protected]
Cloth, MY Pads, Dignity Kits
Goonj’s 2-decade journey with cloth as a basic but neglected need led us to the understanding that for #menstruating women cloth is also a sanitary pad. The struggle of millions of women, for cloth, thus took a new meaning for us.
In 2003, we evolved MY Pad from the rapidly increasing urban surplus cloth and textile surplus.
That turning point has led to production of millions of cloth pads since. Over the years the entire circular economic loop has also led to providing #livelihood to hundreds of women making these pads.
These pads are called MY Pads and they come in a Dignity Pack of 8, together with a pouch (made out of used flex banners) for a woman to keep her used pad and panties for better hygiene.
To order a Dignity pack, write to us: [email protected]
Women of rural Rajasthan celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Week for the first time with action and dialogue
This year, Goonj Rajasthan teams organised #ChuppiTodoBaithaks (break the silence meetings) with rural women across the state to celebrate #MenstrualHygieneDay as a week-long celebration. In Bavdikheda village, Dhamotar Block in Pratapgarh District, 30 residents of the village including men and women attended it. Kamala, a resident, shared, “The belief that menstruation is an illness that women suffer from every month has been ingrained in us for years. As a woman, I now understand that it is not a disease, but rather a blessing that gives us the most amazing experience of motherhood.”
These meetings were accompanied by awareness rallies and various learning activities for women to promote an end to the culture of shame and silence concerning #menstruation.
Our goal is to open up dialogue, spread awareness and mobilise women to take action against their unresolved issues.
To know more, write to us: [email protected]
