By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 20 Apr: The Women’s Cell, in association with IQAC, Doon University, organised a guest talk on menstrual hygiene management under the aegis of Vice Chancellor Prof Surekha Dangwal. Prof HC Purohit, Dean, Students’ Welfare and Coordinator, IQAC, welcomed the guests. The keynote speaker for the event was Anurag Chauhan, a well-known social worker and founder of Humans for Humanity, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Dehradun.
Chauhan spoke to the students about menstrual hygiene and its management, a topic that is often considered taboo in India. Anurag Chauhan has been actively working in the field of social work from a young age and has made significant contributions towards promoting menstrual hygiene in rural areas of the country. Humans for Humanity has been working towards promoting menstrual hygiene among women in over six states of the country, including Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana, and has successfully reached over 3.5 million women in the last five years.
In an interactive session, Anurag Chauhan apprised how, during the pandemic, his NGO provided aid, sanitary napkins and essentials to over 8000 families in various parts of the country, including low-income group families, widows, and maids. He has also started employment generation programmes to uplift and empower communities, making them financially stable and independent even during the pandemic.
His NGO’s Red Cloth Campaign during the pandemic has helped spread awareness about menstruation and bust the taboos associated with it. While answering various queries raised by inquisitive young minds, Chauhan reflected serious concern with cloth sanitary pads on the issue of the biodegradability in comparison to non-biodegradable sanitary napkins. It, however, fails to solve the water crisis required for washing the biodegradable cloth sanitary napkins. He further apprised the gathering about the bamboo, sugarcane and banana fiber antimicrobial sanitary napkins as the only solution to the crisis. In the absence of the policies regarding menstrual health and hygiene, the crisis would remain unresolved and, hence, it can be resolved only when more more sincere volunteers would join the human chain dedicated for the purpose. Humans for Humanity is touching the lives of people, especially women from many sectors like transgender, hills, tribal and sex workers.
The talk was well received by over 150 attendees. The event was a success with the commendable efforts of the Women’s Cell and IQAC. It was attended by Dr. Chetana Pokhriyal, Coordinator, Women’s Cell, Dr Savita Karnatak Tiwari, Dr Mala Shikha and Dr Aditi Bisht.
