Menstrual hygiene management impacts not just the 355 million menstruating women in India, but society at large. This one complex issue touches upon many of India’s challenges: waste management, women’s health, gender-discrimination, right to education, and other basic human rights including caste oppression. While an increasing segment in the country enters the culture of diposable goods and adds non-recyclable sanitary pads to the landfills across the country, a large number of women use rags and ashes in absence of better alternatives during their menstrual cycle. The cultural taboos around menstruation make discussion and adoption of alternatives even more challenging. Sustainable Menstrual hygience awareness is a need for women across the country, in rural and urban India, amongst rich and poor.

While organizations such as Earth and Us, Eco Femme, The Kachara Project and She Cup have been working to address different aspects of this complex problem, the month long campaign #PeriodofChange is an effort to bring this issue into the mainstream. Later in the year, several stakeholders will approach the government to file the petition to push for handling menstrual waste problem..

Your money will enable the heat to stay on this topic. The money shared by Earth and Us and The Kachara Project will enable people to dedicatedly focus on this issue for wider outreach, information disemmination and advocacy.