General

Breaking the bloody Taboo for girls in India

Femalista,
May 15, 2018

Menstruation
comes with innumerable taboos in India, despite of preventing thousands of
deaths women are victim of the taboos.

A women
cannot sleep on the bed, she cannot sleep inside the house hence forced to
sleep outside the house or in the animal shelter, she cannot work in the
kitchen and not even touch few articles because they get impure, they cannot go
to the temple and worship because during this process women are considered to
be impure and some people even treat them as untouchable. In this era it’s
shocking but the fact is it is practiced in various parts of the country!

Humans
For Humanity is an organization run by a 23 year old young social worker,
Anurag Chauhan who is working on a project called WASH – Women Sanitation
Hygiene for 3 years now. The organization provides free sanitary napkins to
women, the napkins are either handmade of cotton or prepared by supporting NGOs
in India. They also provide workshop by doctors, nutritionists and research
scholars who explain to the women and girls the reason why menstruation takes
place, hormonal changes, and biological factors to make them aware of the
facts. Many people in rural parts of India consider menstruation a dirty
process, some think of it as a disease, all of this happens due to lack of
awareness and age old taboos. The volunteers of the organization then provide a
training program under which these women from slums, villages, govt. schools
& colleges are taught how to make their own napkin rather than using ashes,
sand, leaves, jute bags, dirty cloth, etc.

The
organization recently launched its Menstruation campaign in a temple in Jaipur,
Rajasthan. HFH’s pilot project – WASH women sanitation hygiene in Jaipur was
launched by Rukshamani Kumari of Chomu Royal Family, Suman Sharma (Chairperson,
Rajasthan Women Commission), Anannasa Founder Sher Lo from Australia, Author
Tripti Pandey & several young volunteers who went to Jawahar nagar basti to
distribute sanitary napkins and give a workshop on menstrual hygiene.

It is
undeniable that women are as much of a powerhouse, if not more, as men when it
comes to working towards progress of the women. In every field from sports to
academics and all other professions women have left a significant mark. And in
the years to come the younger lot is only bound to outdo what their ancestors
have done but there is still a huge population of women in India who die due to
poor menstrual hygiene. Countering to the major problems Humans For Humanity
started making handmade Sanitary Napkins from cotton cloth and have been
distributing free of cost in urban slums as well as villages. Workshops are
held at various government schools and colleges with young girls to make the
aware about the same by lady doctors and volunteers. They also teach women
& girls how to make their own sanitary napkin which has also become a mode
of earning for few women who make these napkins in bulk and sell it at very low
price in nearby household. Recently actress Twinkle Khanna also appreciated the
efforts of the organization and joined hands to spread awareness.
On this
occasion Founder of Humans For Humanity, Anurag Chauhan said, “Save the lives of
the women who are dying every day before you stand to empower them.”
“We
certainly can’t change the world but start to change”, added the 23 year old
Founder of HFH. Rukshamani Kumari who is the face of the campaign in Rajasthan
said, “It gladdens my heart that such young individuals are coming forward for
such causes, I congratulate the entire team of Humans For Humanity for their
efforts”.
Humans
for Humanity is a brain child of Anurag Chauhan, aged 23 years, who began his
journey of serving society and doing social work from Dehradun, at a mere age
of 16 years. Even at that age, he harbored an ambition to improve and work on
the social strata of the world we live in.
Currently,
the organization headed by him is evolving social work by engaging not only the
youth of Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh but also people of
different professions to work towards regaining the lost sheen of society. The
organization hosts interns from 17 countries (Spain, Brazil, China, Japan,
Indonesia, Egypt, Argentina, Nepal, Sri lanka, Australia, Bahrain, Afghanistan,
Columbia, Italy, etc) working and researching on various issues of the slums in
India. Other than WASH the organization also works on the following projects:
– Street
Smart

Each One
Teach One

Clean India
Campaign

Promotion
of Indian Culture and Heritage
Present
on the occasion were Rukshamani Kumari of Chomu Royal Family, Dr. Suman Sharma
Chairperson Women Commission, Rajasthan, Sakshi Boolchadani coordinator HFH,
Princy Randhawa Professor in charge for the activity.