The lockdown has adversely impacted access to menstrual hygiene information and products, reveals a survey by the Menstrual Health Alliance India, leading to a halting or slowed down in production and distribution of sanitary pads significantly.
84% of the partner organizations stated that there is either no or severely restricted access to menstrual products in communities that they work in, especially for sanitary pads," says Tanya Mahajan, coordinator, MHAI.
'Orikalankini', an organization working on changing narratives around Menstruation and sexuality, started a campaign to tackle the situation. By providing high-quality cotton pad 'potli' to women in various rural and conflict conditions. This set consists of 3 cloth pads that cost 150 INR per pack and lasts beyond the lockdown (up to 2 years when washed and dried in sunlight). No recurring supply each month or filling of body with dioxins or pollute the Rivers and land (each disposable pad takes a minimum of 800 years to break down).
We partnered with Orikalankini and raised Rs. 2,62,500 for providing cloth pad sets to
Also arranged for hygiene training sessions for the women on how to utilize the cloth pads.