This Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28), NGOs in the city are endeavouring to break the silence around menstruation. Taboos around this phenomenon are many, and some social groups are initiating online campaigns and even organising rallies in the Capital to raise awareness.
“Menstruation should no longer be a topic confined to remote corners of the house. We aim to educate every girl to move from anxiety to confidence about periods,” says Dr Arun Gupta, co-founder, Sachi Saheli, the NGO that organised National Menstrual Summit on May 22.
#That’smydate, an initiative by Ozone 1M, will also be part of this rally. The campaign invites women to share their next date or expected date of period, by posting their pictures on their social media accounts. To engage the participants, other events that will take place in the rally include street play, flash mob, human chain formation and on the spot painting.
Another online campaign will be promoted by the NGO, Breakthrough. “We will share statistics and videos addressing the issue of stigma on menstrual hygiene on the social media platforms. It’s important that there’s a dialogue between the parents and the daughters about menstruation,” says Richa Singh, coordinator, Breakthrough.
Remember #LahuKaLaagan, a campaign by the NGO She Says, which recently went viral on social media, for making sanitary pads tax free? The ongoing campaign will take a major step forward. “On Menstrual Hygiene Day, we have planned to file a court case to ask for tax removal from sanitary napkins. Though we have been working on the campaign since 2016, it gained popularity just recently. We had hoped that the central government will make sanitary pads tax free but they have been categorised in the 12 per cent tax slab in GST (Goods and Services Tax) bills, recently,” says Krutika Pursnani, outreach director, She Says.
{{/usCountry}}Remember #LahuKaLaagan, a campaign by the NGO She Says, which recently went viral on social media, for making sanitary pads tax free? The ongoing campaign will take a major step forward. “On Menstrual Hygiene Day, we have planned to file a court case to ask for tax removal from sanitary napkins. Though we have been working on the campaign since 2016, it gained popularity just recently. We had hoped that the central government will make sanitary pads tax free but they have been categorised in the 12 per cent tax slab in GST (Goods and Services Tax) bills, recently,” says Krutika Pursnani, outreach director, She Says.
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