Beyond Taboos (Menstrual Health) - A journey from boy's perspective

“I used a newspaper during my period, and it was not working. I did not go to school until the period ended,” Shared a girl during data collection menstruation in the school of Almora district, Uttarakhand, India. Most of the girls had bad experiences in their first period in the village of Uttarakhand, India.

In this photo I am sharing my experience with school adolescents

Ashish and his team members

Meet Ashish Pant, a young boy from Almora district, Uttarakhand. During a lockdown, when he and his sister were quarantined in the hospital, she got her first period. Ashish, being the only familiar person in the hospital, shared with him with a lot of hesitation. After this experience, Ashish started working towards addressing this issue.

Ashish Pant

Ashish once a sociology student chose Menstruation as his research subject and now is pursuing Ph.D. in the same field. In his research, he observed that many girls face challenges during their first period and struggle with maintaining hygiene, and using sanitary pads, and do not know about PCOD, cervical cancer, and other information about unhygienic practices during the period. He also understood that some girls could not afford sanitary pads because of the financial situation.

Sanitary Pad bank

To address this Ashish and his team - Mayank Pant and Rahul Joshi, Himanshi, Priyanka, and Dipali have started a Sanitary Pad Bank in the Almora district. This is the first pad bank where anyone can come and take a free sanitary pad. They conduct Menstrual Health Awareness Campaign in the schools and villages. Educating girls and women about menstrual health, risks of unhygienic practices, and different methods of managing periods. Ashish and the team also aim to encourage girls and women to use menstrual cups, although it will be a long and tough journey as there are many myths in society about periods. The team understands that this is a challenging but necessary journey. Throughout their campaigns, they have understood the impact of myths on girls and women, including how many villages still separate girls and women during their periods. The time girls and women need more support could feel lonely and divested with no information or confusion. Their mission is to break the silence and challenge those barriers, enabling girls and women so that they can have informed choices and can manage, and celebrate this essential aspect of their lives.

The awareness campaign includes boys and men from schools and villages. Ashish emphasizes that, as a man, you typically have 4 to 5 important women in your life- your mother, sister, friend, wife, and daughter. The choice is yours: be a bystander or support the girls and women who are part of your life.

This team work in Almora district

What makes this group unique for me is its origin with Ashish. He stands as a real role model for society by not viewing menstruation as a problem for girls and women (a common perspective). Instead, he and his team can contribute and provide support. It is amazing to see that all the 3 member of the core team is male and they could see and emphasise and come up with action-based solutions. It is powerful to me as they are breaking the stigma: A. Menstruation is not a problem and B. Everyone should be informed and become a supporting hand to break the stigma not perpetuate the issue. Additionally, all the advisory board members are male professors from the university who share the dream of these three boys- to create an equal society for everyone.

This whole thing started with Ashish, he is a real role model for society and he did not see menstruation as a girl's and women's problem (which is a common line to use), and saw how he could contribute to support. Including him his core team members all the 3 members are male which again I find very supportive and breaking the stigma around that A. it is not a problem B. Everyone needs to be aware and become a supporting hand and not a problem.
All the advisory board members were male professors from the university who believed in 3 boys' dreams and supporting them to create an equal society for everyone.
This initiative is so strong that now they have 3 female members and more than 20 volunteers who have become part of the dream.
The campaign was so strong that now they have 3 female members and more than 20 volunteers who support them in their dream. I don’t want to say it is a cause or Issue as it should be a dream for everyone to have an equal society and no discrimination, or neglect due to any situation.

I would like to support this organisation as I have a very similar story in my first period and I can connect it so well. I wish I could have such kind of people around me at that time to guide and talk about it.

I will donate this post all the money to this organisation. If you would like to support the organisation you can email me at [email protected] or connect directly with Ashish Pant on [email protected]

This post I wrote after taking verbal consent by the organisation, all the photos clicked by me and blurred to keep the children's and other participants faces unidentified)