Menstruation is a taboo subject in our society. For ever and ever, something as natural as menstruation has been brushed off under the carpet, which is why health and sanitation issues related to it didn’t get the due attention. Now, a city-based organisation has embarked on a journey to make a change by spreading awareness regarding menstrual hygiene. Founded by Dilip Kumar Pattubala and his friend Sahana Bhat, Sukhibhava is playing an instrumental role in educating the women, in the urban slums of Bengaluru, about menstrual hygiene
While pursuing his bachelors in business management graduate, Dilip started a student community service club along with Sahana which organised activities like slum development camps and blood donation camps. Dilip has previously worked with Akshay Patra Foundation and HelpAge India.
He pursued a Master’s in Social Welfare and Social Policy from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and worked with Red Cross Society in London. He came back to Bengaluru and joined Pollinate Energy, an Australian organisation which works with temporary slums in the city providing them with affordable solar lights.
“One Australian fellow happened to ask me what do women use for sanitation. I was taken back. That’s when I started researching and reading articles online about menstrual hygiene in urban slums in Bengaluru and found out, to my surprise, that this issue has rarely been addressed,” says Dilip.
His curiosity lead to this discovery that only 12% of women in India use sanitary napkins. Sahana - who has worked with firms like Janagraha - and Dilip conducted a survey on 250 underprivileged women only to discover that 82% of the women do not use sanitary napkins. 6% of the women resort to leaves, ash or newspapers. That’s when Sukhibhava was founded in 2013. “We ran a small crowdfunding campaign in early 2014 and launched our operations in June 2014,” adds Dilip.
Sukhibhava provides the underprivileged affordable menstrual hygiene products like sanitary pads through locally trained female micro-entrepreneurs.
“Sukhibhava works with communities directly and conduct a base land research to understand their health and hygiene. We identify trainers where one trainer is assigned with a cluster of communities. To go and deliver education regarding various aspects of menstrual hygiene in these communities. One woman in every slum community is identified to become a micro entrepreneur. Sukhibhava supports these micro-entrepreneurs for three months ensuring they set up their own businesses. They are trained to conduct awareness sessions. They sell regular sanitary pads, biodegradable sanitary pads, menstrual cups and these are cheaper. A micro-entrepreneur earns Rs 5 for every pack she sells,” states Dilip.
Currenty working with Tata Trust, Sukhibava has educated about 16,500 plus women so far. It has also partnered with Piramal Foundation.
“To deal with such a stigmatized issue, we came up with That Time of the Month Programme on 2015 where anyone can come forward and adopt the sanitation of a girl by paying Rs. 999 which includes four education sessions and two packs of sanitary napkins every month for the entire year. We reached out to 5,500 girls in the low-income schools of Bangalore. We see incredible response among the school girls,”, says Dilip.
On a parting note, Dilip says that he has a mission of reaching one lakh women by March 2018 and one million women by 2020.
