The Programme
The Inception of ‘Making Periods Normal’
The cumulative effects of ignoring menstrual hygiene management affect the achievement of other crucial developmental goals, including access to water, sanitation and hygiene services, education, health and social inclusion (Mahon & Fernandes, 2010). Therefore, menstrual hygiene management is not just a women’s health issue – rather, it is a core development concern.
In response to the existing challenges of menstrual hygiene management, including awareness and lack of sanitary products among women and adolescent girls in India, ‘Making Periods Normal’ emerged as an intervention aimed at creating demand for sanitary products, and creating a robust local distribution network to meet this demand. The programme in India, since then, has taken off in the districts of Munger and Bhagalpur in the state of Bihar in Northern India.
A joint program in partnership with Dutch organisations Simavi and Rutgers and financed with a grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery (NPL), Making Periods Normal aims to give 1,65,000 women and girls access to sanitary pads in Bihar and create 815 jobs for women in the sale and distribution of the pads by 2017-2018.
Our Mission
The targeted outcomes of the program are:
- 660,000 women and girls are aware of the risks of bad menstrual hygiene and of ways to improve their menstrual hygiene management.
- 200,000 men and boys have been (indirectly) informed about menstruation and the importance of menstrual hygiene.
- 165,000 women and girls have access to affordable sanitary napkins through a local network of distributors.
- 25% of women and girls in Munger and Bhagalpur will buy sanitary napkins to manage their menstruation.
Design of the Program
Essential to the success of ‘Making Periods Normal’ is the alliance of organizations that can support the two implementation arms of this program: awareness generation and distribution.
- Awareness Exercises
Simavi and Rutgers have beene engaged to spearhead the implementation of awareness campaigns in the communities of the two districts. The efforts of local partners, including Restless Development, Pratham, SEWA Bharat, and Bihar Voluntary Health Association have ensured that awareness campaigns have extended to all social groups in the community, thereby making menstrual hygiene an agenda of the community at large, and not just of women and adolescent girls. Further, as part of the awareness exercise, the ‘1WeekExtra’ campaign was initiated to raise awareness among women and girls between the ages 12 to 49 about issues of menstrual hygiene.
Through the involvement of influential female role models in villages, the awareness efforts have targeted multiple institutions and social groups to spread the message for menstrual hygiene:
- Women in self-help groups have been trained in menstrual hygiene management,
- Adolescent girls, both in-school and out-of-school have been sensitized on the importance of menstrual hygiene and trained to adopt safe sanitary practices,
- Men of the community have been consistently engaged in awareness and outreach activities,
- Health workers have been trained in menstrual hygiene management, and were sensitized to the challenges of implementing it
- The public at large is being sensitized to the issue of menstrual health through culturally relevant activities such as plays and wall paintings, and
- The larger demand for better sanitation facilities at the community level, in schools and in domestic spaces is being raised through advocacy campaigns.
2. Distribution Exercise
Women on Wings’ and its partner in India, Dharma Life’s specific goal is to make sanitary pads available by creating a viable business model with female entrepreneurs selling and distributing sanitary pads. These will address challenges to availability and access of sanitary products at the village level.
Dharma Life leverages its network of rural women entrepreneurs in the two districts to meet the demand generated through the awareness campaigns. The distribution of these sanitary products in the villages is thus beneficial on two counts: that it facilitates easy access to menstrual hygiene products for women and girls, and that it also provides a significant income to women who distributed them in the village level.