As the world gears up for Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, Youth ki Awaaz conducts online training workshops

As they say menstruation is never a problem but poor menstrual hygiene definitely is. More than 15 young change-makers from across the country, who have been working on mainstreaming issues around menstrual health and hygiene, participated in online workshops held by Youth ki Awaaz as the world gears up for Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28. The workshops are aimed to empower these young change-makers with a set of skills to create powerful social media campaigns and scale the impact of their social justice projects online.

These workshops have been running since October 2019 as part of the #PeriodPaath campaign in partnership with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), a body affiliated to the United Nations. Ever since the lockdown started, workshops have moved online and Youth ki Awaaz has trained over 80 young change-makers on running high-impact digital campaigns around various intersections of menstrual hygiene related issues such as sustainability, gender issues, education and sanitation. These 80 young change-makers are now a part of the YKA Action Network.

At these workshops, they are taught how to design their own digital campaigns, define a problem they wish to tackle, create strategies to address the different audience segments, employ social media tools and skills effectively, and target the right decision maker to take assertive action on their demands.

Over the course of next six months, they will be working on their own digital campaigns around a specific issue of menstrual hygiene management, which has been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The issues range from lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, lack of knowledge, health and medical staff. Each online campaign will be targeting a specific decision maker to come up with time bound and targeted solutions that address these concerns via means of a policy or guidelines.

On the eve of Menstrual Hygiene Day, YKA salutes these change-makers, who have been working relentlessly.

Pravin Nikam, Jaipur Action Network Fellow, is a lawyer based in Pune. He is a human rights defender and believes in upholding the democratic values. He is the founder of Roshni Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on mentoring and enabling youngsters, communities and organisations to strengthen their capabilities to implement effective menstrual hygiene management.

He plans to start a campaign with an objective to make Zilla Parishad, Ahmednagar, Pune, initiate Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) ToT sessions for Teachers in Ahmednagar, which will directly impact 600 teachers and indirectly reach 8,000 girls by December this year. The trained teachers will provide psycho-social support to adolescent girls in school; and provide regular hygiene promotion classes in every school. The training will happen at district and block levels that will enable teachers to understand the importance of MHM and develop skills and capacities to address MHM in schools and at the local community level.

Prajna Raj Wankawalla, 15 Mumbai is the founder of an NGO — Myselfesteen (MST). She started this in February this year for mental health. It serves as a platform for people to share their stories through short videos. It also provides free counselor services to women and girls if they feel low during their menstrual cycles.

Shraddha Subhashrao Telange, 26, Pune, is associated with an organisation called Work for Equality, which is working for developing leadership qualities among SC/ STs and minorities along with support for girls educational development. She is working as an advocacy co-ordinator of a programme which focusses on menstrual hygiene and lack of sanitation facilities at schools for adolescent girls. They are planning to organise signature campaign along with charter of demands and send it to Zilla Parishad CEO, education officer, deputy director education and education ministry so they prioritise the issue and give written order for all schools in Pune district and state and follow the criteria of menstrual management, water, sanitation and toilets facilities at schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.