Menstrual Hygiene Day, observed on May 28 each year , aims to break taboos and raise awareness about the importance of menstrual hygiene management worldwide. It was initiated by the Germany-based NGO, WASH United in 2014.
Recently I had been to some vintage houses in South Gujarat and was surprised to see separate bathrooms for ladies for those five days in a month. There was an unwritten code of conduct, rules of segregation laid down, surprisingly in one of the so-called progressive and wealthy communities of India. I knew a few of my neighbours from the southern part of India who would not even enter their kitchen. In Mumbai my housemaid had a good time working for some families from Rajasthan, for they would not allow her to wash utensils on those days. In greater or lesser degree there was some taboo, some dos and don’ts, irrespective of which part of India anyone belonged to. So much for unity among diversity.
Phew! I too have not yet mentioned the actual word. The euphemism ‘those five days’ works fine for the perfect lady I am. Isn’t it gross to say menstrual cycle? Such a taboo topic to discuss! The awkward silence has given an opportunity to big companies to charge an unnecessarily high price for sanitary napkins, which anyway are used by hardly 20% of India's women. The government has put it in the ‘luxury products’ category and levies 14.5% tax on it. Isn’t it akin to taxing women for a biological phenomenon she has no control on?
Swati and Shyamsunder Bedekar
A few women are waking up and breaking the silence. A Member of Parliament is asking for 100% exemption on the production and distribution of health-friendly sanitary napkins. In Gujarat it is heartening to know that Swati Bedekar is transforming the lives of so many girls, thus becoming their god-mother. She used to visit rural and semi-urban areas to train the teachers there, and something struck her in the school attendance sheet. There was low attendance or alarming drop-out levels for girl students in schools once they reached puberty. She wondered why none has thought of this basic aspect of women’s health? The rural girls do not use sanitary napkins for they could not afford the branded ones. Even if they bought it, where is the privacy in a village to dispose of the soiled ones?
Swati did not ignore these questions but shared them with her husband, Shyam Sunder, who has a passion for creativity and innovations. They decided to make economical sanitary napkins, and after lot of research and trial-and-error approaches, got what they had wanted. The machines were improvised and Shyam Sunder made some innovations. They set up units in rural areas employing rural women to make them. It worked for these women; they got empowered and also spread the good word. But the hurdle came when in the absence of a garbage collection system girls didn’t know how to dispose of the stuff. If they dug a hole and buried it, the dogs would dig it out. They can’t burn it and couldn't just throw it anywhere.
The innovative streak in Shyam inspired him to make a terracotta incinerator that burnt the used pads without any odour and little smoke. I first saw this innovation, named ‘Ashudhdhinashak’, on the Rashtrapati Bhawan premises as he was invited by the National Innovation Foundation (Ahmedabad) for the biennial Grassroot Innovation Festival. He also displayed this at Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan and Made in India seminars. Orders come from across the country for women’s hostels and villages. Consequently, he found jobs for potters who made them.
Swati simultaneously comes up with new ideas to involve as many people as possible to create awareness. As May 28 is celebrated as Menstrual Hygiene Day, she is out with a mascot, Laali, a paper doll with her flouncy red gown on a red stick. No ice-bucket challenge on that red-letter day, but more thoughtful ‘Hygiene Bucket Challenge’ is in place. Anyone who wishes to gift year-long hygiene to an economically weak girl could do so by gifting the bucket with a year’s supply of ‘Sakhi’, low-cost sanitary napkins that come within Rs. 300. Songs, rhymes, plays and folk theatre Bhavai create menstrual awareness in villages.
But there is still a long way to go for Swati on her awareness trail. She still often comes across women who still consider it a curse. Is it impure body or impure mind, time to ponder.
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