Out of 355 million menstruating women and girls in India only, only 12% of women and girls have access to sanitary napkins, while the majority of them rely on outdated, unhygienic methods like ashes, grass, husk, cow dung, rags, etc., during menstruation. Why something that is every woman’s birth right ended up being a luxury majority of them can’t afford?
Diya India Foundation’s Proud to Bleed Initiative is centred on deflating age-old menstruation myths and spreading menstrual hygiene awareness. From time-to-time, our volunteers organize donation drives where low-cost sanitary pads are distributed to rural girls, new mothers and especially girls studying in government schools that either doesn’t have access to PADS or are unaware of their existence.
On 24th Sep 2019, our volunteers visited the slum area of Jahangirpuri and distributed more than 100+ sanitary pads to women there and created awareness among adolescent girls and women about the significance of using sanitary napkins. We got really ecstatic when we found that the Pradhan of the area himself was the advocate of women empowerment and believes that menstrual hygiene and management is the topic that needs to come out from behind the curtain of shame and silence in India.
