Breaking the ‘Whisperous’ Monotony
When India is moving towards becoming New India, amidst many new equilibriums and fresh challenges, the lives of women in our country is also changing. For uncounted years, menstruation has been looked upon as taboo across sections of society. Even education has been a slow catalyst in uprooting some deep strangled misconceptions about ‘those days’. Hygiene has been equally compromised, with women being forced to use materials ranging from ashes to sawdust. In few tribes of Gujarat and Maharashtra, women are even forced to sit on a stone, bleeding.
When it came to menstrual hygiene and affordability of sanitary pads,I was not expecting a challenging situation in Haryana given the prosperity of the state. However, I quickly understood that the economic performance of the state does not necessarily proportionate with women’s well being. Sanitary pads available in the market are still beyond the reach of average rural women, certainly below middle class.
Another trend I have come across is the assumed pressure to accept the usage of sanitary pads by rural women. The cause could be widespread awareness sessions and conversations around menstrual hygiene which very well aware them about what is healthy, but partially fails to support them to adopt it. Then, it becomes a taboo if a woman accepts that she uses anything but pads! This is my first hand account with women of one of the villages in Ambala, where I was posted in CMGGA Programme.
To address the constraint of being aware about using sanitary pads but not being able to afford it, district administration was brought on board to support to set up a low cost sanitary pad making unit. Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Padman’ was still fresh in the minds of the people, and the movie had spread awareness that pad manufacturing was not rocket science. We used this awareness to establish a Self- Help group for the rural women, which would also be a source of income for them.
District Rural Development Authority, Ambala under the chairmanship of Additional Deputy Commissioner, setup a one room unit in village Sahibpura. While infrastructure needs such as physical space, electricity etc. were provided by the Sarpanch of the village, the women would be united under National Rural Livelihood Mission.
The challenge lay in identifying the group of women who would take up this ‘unconventional’ job. The first group that we identified, walked out of the project considering the marketing and social risk involved. In the second round, we identified seven women who were ready to take this challenge. They formed a group called Ganesh Self Help group.
These super women entrepreneurs are 10th pass women and were thrilled to manufacture pads. A pack of 8 pads costs rupees 15 and the Self Help Group decided to sell it as ‘Sakhi Suraksha’, and they saw a potential to ease hygiene issues of fellow women.
After a month long training, the project was formally launched on July 28th, 2018 and currently they have a clientele of around 500 women and girls and they supply these pads to 10 Government schools.
Apart from creating a sustainable business model, this project also drew the emancipation of women with small steps.
- From struggling to operate the machine, to be able to innovate in time of a mechanical malfunction, these women entrepreneurs grew into problem solvers.
- From being dependent on the male members of the family to brothers and husbands eagerly getting raw materials for the unit, these women rose to the forefront.
- From being effective managers of their households to also taking up roles of business women, they have taken a step forward to shape new roles for themselves.
The essence of true independence lies in these small victories women achieve in the remotest corners of this country. The new equilibrium is seen when a 10th Pass Neelam talks about the intricacies of sanitary pad manufacturing to making other women learn the skill to be self dependent.
