In order to break the taboos associated with menstruation and to encourage adolescent girls and women to use eco friendly sanitary pads, a series of campaigns under ‘Garima Abhiyan’ have been launched across Jharkhand. The initiative which was started in Simdega in December 2018 is now being taken across all the districts of Jharkhand by the education department since December 2019. For ‘Garima Abhiyan’ the district administration collaborated with Nation’s Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) to create awareness about menstrual hygiene and the eco friendly ways of practicing it.
“In Simdega mostly the rural women are involved in the various economic activities and are the main work force. While tackling sanitation, the administration decided to take up personal hygiene especially for the women. As a part of this project awareness among more than 1.25 Lakh people was created. Since sanitary pads are expensive, women were trained on how to make cloth pads. They were also told on how these are reusable and the ways of maintaining proper hygienic conditions,” said former Simdega Deputy Commissioner and present Director Secondary Education, Jharkhand Jatashankar Choudharary.
As a part of this campaign, women in the district of Simdega were given training on how to make sanitary napkins using cloth. For this the district administration collaborated with an Udaipur based NGO- Jatan and trained 100 women on how to make the cloth napkins.
“Menstruation is one of those topics on which apart from men even women shy away from discussing it openly. The main purpose of this campaign is to break the silence and that can only be achieved when the men are also aware about this natural process and are open to discuss it. In the ‘Garima Fauj’, which included locals men also participated in equal numbers. During an awareness campaign, about 3200 people in the district which included both men and women in equal numbers were trained,” said Aspirational District Fellow Satwik Mishra.
Mishra further stated that under this project, workshops in 964 Anganwadi Centre and 500 SHG Centres across all the 450 villages in Simdega district were conducted. Women in the district have formed self help groups that make around 150 biodegradable pads on a regular basis which are sold in the village markets and are called ‘Missi Garima Pds’.