To mark menstrual hygiene day, a meeting of social media influencers was organised by the Department of Women and Child Development and UNICEF at Bhopal.
Around 50 social media players had joined in the meeting. All of them took the Red Dot Pledge and committed to support the theme and pick up an issue to spread right information. Speaking at the meeting Principal Secretary, Woman and Child Development Department Sanjay Shukla said it is important that we have a resource pool which gives right information and also looks at sustainable solutions. Commissioner Women and Child Development Deparment Sufiya Faruqui Wali urged these instagrammers, you-tubers and Radio Jockeys to see how they can break taboos , encourage engagement of men and boys in the process and spread information on the choices on menstrual health.
Pragya Awasthi, Joint Director Women and Child Development spoke on the efforts of the department, Udita scheme of the State on menstrual health. Suresh Tomar, Joint Director Women and Child Development spoke on the role of social media influencers in breaking myths and taboos and also spoke on the gender aspect of the issue, and importance of engaging males. Anil Gulati, UNICEF Communication Specialist, shared information on Red Dot Challenge - an initiative of UNICEF and social media influencer Diipa Khosla and shared that it is reaching out to people. This time the hashtag used are #PeriodFriendlyWorld and #RedDotChallenge. UNICEF team consisting of Narendra Singh Chouhan, WASH Specialist, Pushpa Awasthy, Nutrition Specialist, Amit Dogra Health Officer, and Sujan Sarkar supported the meeting.
All participants took the Red Dot Challenge by standing by for the issue and also shared image of Red Dot on the palm of the hand.