Menstrual Hygiene Day 2019

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Since January 2019, Amma has been distributing free Saukhyam Pads in Amrita SeRVe villages. So far, they have been given to women and girls in West Bengal, Kerala, Telangana, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. The campaign will continue until all Amrita SeRVe villages are reached. Photo is from Kalinagar, West Bengal, where women and girls gather for an information session about menstrual health and hygiene.

For the third consecutive year, Menstrual Hygiene Day was celebrated in many Amrita SeRVe villages on Tuesday 28th of May. The event consisted of menstrual health and hygiene awareness sessions followed by discussions. The discussions with women and girls involved an explanation of the menstrual cycle along with complications, hygiene practices and balanced diet recommendations.

In many villages, Amrita staff is collaborating with the local Primary Health Centre staff. For example, in Dunda village, Uttarakhand, an ASHA worker invited school girls from the 6th– 10th class, the Auxilliary Nursing Midwife and village coordinator to her home to conduct an awareness session and discuss menstruation. In Rajasthan, an elderly woman was invited to conduct a session on hygiene practices for young girls.

120 girls from five Bihar villages received free sets of Saukhyam Reusable Pads in April.

In Odisha, during a discussion with SHG women, the health worker asked how old they were when they started menstruating. Following this, the women shared their hygiene practices. Guptapada village has its own very unique tradition of celebrating menstruation and womanhood during the Raja Parba annual festival in June. The idea of the Raja Parba festival was explained during these events by the village coordinators.

VILLAGE NEWS