On the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28th, 2018, an awareness session of rural school girls was conducted by the Remedial Facilitator of SARD NGO, Ms. Lalita Yadav. 30 girls from 8th-10th classes were made aware of menstrual hygiene, associated topics and use of sanitary napkins.

A large number of adolescent girls from rural areas of India are still not aware about issues related to menstruation and maintaining personal hygiene during this period and dealing with associated physical problems. They usually don’t get a proper platform to get information or discuss such issues.

An awareness session was conducted in which all associated topics related to menstruation were explained to adolescent school girls, like what is menstruation, calculation of the period, physical problems faced by girls during their periods and ways to deal with it, maintaining personal hygiene during this period and importance of maintaining hygiene, avoiding the traditional methods of using dirty cloths and promoting use of sanitary napkins, etc. Traditional myths and misconceptions in rural areas related to menstruation were discussed. FAQs by the girls related to the topic were answered by the facilitator.

After the classroom awareness session, a live demonstration of the functioning of a sanitary napkin dispenser and incinerator was given by the Facilitator, which are installed inside girls’ toilet for privacy. The facilitator explained the functions of both the machines and also explained the importance of incinerators in destroying the used napkins to keep the environment clean.

After the session and demonstration, girls were very happy to get new information about menstruation and also about the napkin dispenser and incinerator, which give them privacy to use the napkins as per their needs, and they don’t have to ask anyone for assistance.