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Humans for Humanity has been working relentlessly towards the cause of menstruation and menstrual hygiene for the past five years. The NGO’s pilot project WASH (Women, Sanitation and Hygiene) that was started in 2015, works towards educating women about menstruation, menstrual hygiene, nutrition, providing then counselling, ftee sanitary napkins and also training them to make biodegradable sanitary napkins at home.The WASH project is actively working in six states and has employed women from many villages, making them financially self-sufficient.

Another venture by Humans For Humanity, “Break the Bloody Taboo” is directed towards burning down the various myths and taboos surrounding menstruation. During one such campaign in Rajasthan, the volunteers conducted a session inside a temple with women of menstruating age. In another session, women were handed over tulsi saplings and asked to nurture the sapling for a month and then see the results.

Project WASH is a success in all the 6 states, the NGO recently started a campaign The Red Cloth Campaign. As a part of the campaign, people were asked to tie a red cloth around their wrist and post a picture of it on their social media profiles with the following caption:

“It is high time we stop talking about periods in hush tones and eliminate the taboo shrouding it.

Periods are normal.

They are not inappropriate and there is no room for shame while talking about it.

Let’s talk! Period.

@humansforhumanityofficial

@anuragchauhanofficial

#laal #stainsofstrength “

They were further asked to nominate any five friends to take the campaign forward and not let the chain of change die down.

The Red Cloth Campaign aims towards normalisation of open conversation around menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Two-thirds of all cervical cancer deaths occur due to ignorance about menstrual hygiene. Lack of menstrual hygiene is also the fifth biggest killer of women all over the world. All these facts make the Red Cloth Campaign and talking about menstruation a lot more imperative.

The Campaign that began on 12th August has garnered an overwhelming response from people belonging to different fields over 3000 people have posted about the same including some, Celebrities like Kirti Kulhari, Shibani Dandekar, Lisa Ray, Divya Seth Shah, Malini Agarwal, Amrita Puri have graciously taken up the campaign so far. It has been taken up outside India as well in parts of australia, brazil, etc.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD6rhyGpkLy/

The Red Cloth Campaign is leaving a mark on people and urging them to come out of their shells and play their part in sensitizing people about how menstruation is a normal biological process and there should be no hint of shame or embarrassment while addressing it.

Even though the Red Cloth Campaign has now reached a humongous crowd your support is needed to take this campaign to greater heights.The Red Cloth Campaign is open to anyone willing to do their part in bringing about a change and helping Humans for Humanity take a step forward towards normalisation of open conversations around periods to pull it out of the taboo and myths it lies embroiled in. Let’s take a step forward towards ending this stigma.

Quotes –

Kirti Kulhari –

“It is deplorable that menstruation and conversation around it has been shamed for centuries. There should be no need for code words for period, no need for wrapping newspapers around a pack of sanitary pads when buying it and asking for a pad doesn’t have to be a hushed request. Stains are foreseeable outcomes of having a period and we need to be okay with the fact. It’s time we ended period shaming and the silence surrounding it.”

Divya Seth Shah –

“The Red Cloth Campaign is a powerful and visual declaration of the End to this Silence. Misogyny found varied paths down the Ages. Subjugation and Superstition fueled them. The Silence and Shame centered around Menstruation has remained . A bodily function that propelled the Human Race is rendered Unspeakable by centuries of Social Taboo. Time to change that . Time to celebrate. The Rite of Passage. And into Adulthood. No one is flaunting it . Just making it Real and Dignified.”

Anurag Chauhan –

“Menstruation is not a problem, poor menstrual hygiene is.” He added, “The taboos must have had a relevance at that time, today believing in them makes no sense to me.”

Shibani Dandekar –

“I take a step forward to eradicate the ignorance around menstruation and menstrual hygiene.Lets Talk ! Period”

Malini Agarwal –

“Periods are normal, they are the elixir of life. Please Keep the chain going & the conversation around menstruation alive.”

Menstruation comes with innumerable taboos in India, despite preventing thousands of deaths women are victims of the taboos. A woman cannot sleep on the bed, she cannot sleep inside the house hence forced to sleep outside the house or even in the animal shelter at times, she cannot work in the kitchen and not even touch few articles, they cannot go to the temple and worship because during this period 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 still practiced in various parts of our country.

Humans For Humanity is a non profit, voluntary organisation run by a 25 year old social worker, Anurag Chauhan who is working on a project called WASH – Women Sanitation Hygiene from 2015. The organisation provides free sanitary napkins to women, they are either handmade cotton napkins or prepared by supporting NGOs in India. They also provide workshops by doctors, nutritionists and research scholars who explain to the women and girls the biological reason of menstruation, kind of nutrition required, remedies to avoid pain/ cramps, hormonal changes in the body, discuss various stages of menstruation, personal hygiene, disposal of napkins and other 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 team members also give counselling to parents, young girls and even women in the bracket of menopause.

The volunteers of the organisation 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 ash, sand, leaves, jute bags, dirty cloth, which leads to cervical cancer, many other illnesses/ diseases and untimely death. Sanitary napkin making workshop helps them in a big way as most of the women in the slums and rural areas cannot afford buying sanitary napkins. Along with WASH the organisation also runs a project simultaneously – “Breaking The Bloody Taboo” to crush age old taboos about menstruation, which leads to the mistreatment towards women in many rural and urban areas.

Under the Project WASH awareness is not just for the women and girls but also for men of the families. Anurag saw that he as a man went and spoke to men about menstruation, men told him they had no idea about the danger the women are subjected to as nobody ever told them about it. He believes, when men will be also educated, it will then remove the taboo around menstruation. This shame associated with menstruation has lead to poor menstrual hygiene and care causing various health problems in women. Women feel ashamed to come out and speak about their health issues which are related to their reproduction organs as well as menstrual problems.

Not just the young girls but even the elderly women do not know how to use a sanitary pad. Project WASH provides raw material to the women in slums & villages to teach them how to make sanitary pads using cloth at home.

During the lockdown the work of Humans for Humanity has come as a great help to the women who have been taught how to make sanitary napkins at home as they don’t have to go out and buy them but they can make hygienic sanitary pads themselves at home. They have reached a new level of empowerment as they are not dependent on the outside world to maintain a healthy menstrual cycle. Humans for Humanity not just teaches women about menstrual hygienic but also how having nutritious food which should have iron is important for women to keep healthy as huge number of women in India suffer from anaemia which is caused by lack of iron. Anurag is an example how youth of India are breaking the stereotype associated with menstrual hygiene by touching lives of those who need awareness and education by honesty, dedication and a will do bring a positive change.

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