Srinagar: Breaking the age-old taboo and stigma associated with menstruation in rural pockets, a women’s Self Help Group is manufacturing and distributing sanitary napkins under a NABARD-aided project in Narupora village of Kokernag in south Kashmir. Alkaria SHG, popular for its revolutionary initiative in the area, has been sensitising women and creating awareness regarding menstrual hygiene and its significance for living a healthy life.
This move is part of the “My Pad My Right”, a pan-India initiative, launched by the NAB Foundation to promote menstrual hygiene awareness and entrepreneurship among women in rural areas.
Ridwana Akhtar, President of the SHG, said that she and her group members have taken a pledge to create awareness regarding menstrual hygiene and provide easy and affordable available options for hygiene to women.
The group is engaged in manufacturing sanitary napkins and educating and aware people of menstrual hygiene. She said,
We will continue the mission by involving more and more females of adjacent villages in her noble venture.
Notably, Alkaria SHG was formally granted the first-ever Sanitary Pad Manufacturing Unit from NAB Foundation as part of efforts to promote menstrual hygiene awareness and entrepreneurship among women in rural areas NABARD.
Anantnag Deputy Commissioner Dr Basharat Qayoom, who was present at the launch ceremony of the unit of the Self Help group said that this step is great in the line of women’s empowerment.
The semi-automatic unit with the production capacity of 600-800 pads per day will ensure adequate stock of pads is available for distribution to nearby villages.
He said that the pads that will be manufactured by the SHG will be marketed throughout the district and the concept of establishing this kind of processing unit will be replicated throughout the district.
Also Read: Women Sanitation Workers Of Delhi To Be Given Monthly Supply Of Sanitary Napkins
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
