SEWA BHARAT

1. Amit Kumar, Bariyarpur, Munger

Amit Kumar lives in Bariyarpur.  His friend Ranjan Kumar lives close to his house. Ranjan used to stay upset and anxious about something. One day, Amit took Ranjan aside and asked him why he was so upset and irritated. He said his wife is always unwell and he is upset as he doesn’t know why and is unable to help her. Amit asked him if she sleeps well, if she works, if she eats properly and if there is anything bothering her in the family. He said there were no problems. So Amit mustered the courage to ask him if his wife gets her periods on time and if she keeps herself clean during those 5 days. Rajan had no answers. He said he will ask his wife and get back.

That day, Rajan went home and asked his wife how she keeps clean during periods and what she uses to bathe. She told him that during the 3-4 days of her menses, she doesn’t take a bath, let alone using a soap. She wears the same clothes during the menses and doesn’t change as she doesn’t want to soil all her clothes.

Rajan met Amit a few days later and told him everything his wife had shared with him regarding her menses. Amit understood the problem now and the reason for her frequent sickness. Maybe she had an infection which is making her ill and weak. He spoke to Rajan and shared everything that he had learnt during the SEWA sessions he attended with special focus on menstrual hygiene. After sharing this information, Amit took Rajan and his wife to the doctor who gave Rajan’s wife a medicine and told her to take care of herself.

After a few weeks, Rajan’s wife felt better and Rajan shared all the information Amit had shared with him to his wife with focus on health and hygiene during menses. Rajan’s wife listened to everything very carefully and promised to keep herself clean. She is now healthy and both Rajan and his wife are very happy now.

A few weeks later, Rajan came to Amit’s house again and thanked him for helping him. He asked Amit where he had got all this information from. Amit told him that there is a man who comes in their village from the NGO SEWA Bharat whose name is Raj and he conducts sessions on health and hygiene. He conducts one to one sessions with men on other health issues as well, which sometimes you one is scared of sharing with others. Rajan was thankful to Amit for providing this information and now Rajan too is keen on attending the SEWA Bharat health sessions as it really benefited his wife and family life.

2. Guddu Yadav, Bahadurpur, Munger

My name is Guddu Yadav and I live in Bahadurpur, Munger. I attended the SEWA Bharat education sessions on health and hygiene. Initially, I thought these were silly and useless information which they were giving and only concerned women. I felt shy and ashamed to attend these sessions.

One day, I was watching a session going on and after the session I asked a person who attended it, “What did they tell you?”

He replied, “In these sessions, they tell us many important things which they don’t tell in schools, like care and concern for your wives and daughters, especially their health during their menstruation cycle, how to keep hygienic and the consequences of not keeping clean like infections women are prone to getting.”

I was thinking in my head, how wrong was I, this is not useless information but necessary information which one must have.

Guddu spoke to the SEWA saathi a few days later and he joined the SEWA sessions.  I am very happy and thankful to sewa for conducting these sessions as every day I am learning new things and I am trying to inculcate few things in my life as well. I also share this information with my wife and children so it benefits their lives as well.

3.

Rinku Devi is 30 years old. She attended the session on menstruation with SEWA and her story was very interesting.

She took us back to the first day when she got her first period. She said this was when she was 19 years old. She was sitting in class in school and suddenly she started to feel uneasy. She was getting sudden pain in her stomach and wanted to use the bathroom. She got up from her seat and noticed that her skirt was wet and bloody. She looked down her thigh to see if she had cut herself, but had not. She got scared and ran out of the school. Her friends kept calling her back and teachers too tried to stop her. She only stopped when she reached a secluded jungle, found a rock and sat behind it and started crying. She cried for three hours not knowing what to do.

A few hours later her friend came looking for her. She saw Rinku sitting behind a rock and crying. She said, “Why are you crying and why are you bleeding? Are you hurt?”

Rinku couldn’t stop crying and in between her sobs she narrated the story and kept saying that she had not done anything, nothing bit her, she didn’t fall but doesn’t know where this blood is coming from? Her friend understood, pacified her and said, “Sit down, even I get this ,I don’t know what it is but I do get this pain too.”

She told Rinku Devi not to cry and walked her home.

When Rinku reached home, her mother was calling out her name to help her with the house work. Rinku ran to her bed and hid under that. Meanwhile her mother started getting tense and sent Rinku’s brother to find her in school. After two hours of searching, Rinku’s mother went to the room and looked for something under the bed and spotted Rinku crying under the bed. She told her to come out and Rinku narrated the story to her mother. Her mother understood, told her to stop crying, told her to have warm milk, take a bath and got a cloth from the room and told her to put in her panties. Rinku’s mother didn’t know better so whatever she knew she passed the same information to her daughter. Her mother told her not to go to the temple, use the cloth and wash it and reuse it, and bath occasionally in the pond.

At 21, Rinku got married and moved to Bahadurpur and continued to do the same practice her mother told her. She has a daughter who is 15 years. A friend told her to come for the sewa health session. She told the saathi there that she continues to do the same thing during menses.

During the conversation, she told the saathi that she wanted to talk to her in private. She was unable to share openly her problem when the other women said that they get headaches, white discharge, pain and burning sensation while urination. She told the saathi that she gets boils, rashes and acute pain during those 5 days. The sewa saathi asked her what cloth she uses and she said she uses strips from used synthetic saris. She also shared that she doesn’t wash it properly. She counselled her and told her to use a clean cotton cloth or pad, and bath every day and use clean strips and change when they are soiled. To wash them with cold water and soap and dettol and put it to dry in the sun and not bundle it up in the room in a damp place like she didn’t before.

Rinku went back and shared all the advice with her husband who bought new cotton cloth for her. She now observed good hygiene and the family is also building a toilet for themselves. Two months later. Rinku shared that now her daughter also gets this information on menses in school and they talk to them about using a sanitary pad. She said that there is a Dharma Life entrepreneur in the village who sells them pads. They save INR 80 every month for soap, dettol and pads.

She is thankful to SEWA and MHM program and says that, “What I have learnt here, I didn’t learn in my school even, Now my daughter and I are happy, clean and safe Mahawari/menses is Normal and I am prepared for it every month!

4.

Kajal Devi came for the SEWA health session where the SEWA saathi gave her information about hygiene, how to stay clean during the periods and how to wash the cloth for reuse. Before this, since she didn’t know about this, she never kept herself clean during her menses. We told her that it is important to wash and bath regularly and change the soiled pad/cloth. If she doesn’t do this she will get infection, itching and pain. She learnt about this for the first time and said that they do not have toilets and this is a big problem.

Kajal said “I will definitely try and make this arrangement as it is very important and get freedom from this problem forever. It is very painful and embarrassing. Due to this, I rarely bath during my menses as I am scared and ashamed. I get infections and stay in pain”

Kajal now has got a bathroom and toilet made for which the government has paid her. She has  gone through the reimbursement scheme with the government. She had no problem during the process and now is very happy as she and her family use the bathroom – bath regularly and use their won toilet instead of going to the fields.

Earlier if she had to go to the bathroom or toilet especially at night in the fields she was very scared. It was a big problem, she would sometimes take her husband or go alone even. Even then, she would wait hours for all the family members to fall asleep and then go to the bathroom and this made it very uncomfortable. Sometimes when it was tough, she would put a new cloth over the old soiled on and fall off to sleep.

Now everyone is happy and she feels happy and safe! They are a healthy family. She says, “If I had not attended the SEWA session on menses, hygiene and sanitation I would have never known this could even happen. Thank you for giving me this education especially during the menses time. It has changed my life and my family’s too.”

She feels happy, empowered and clean! She has running water and a functional toilet now!

5.

SEWA organizes menstruation health and hygiene sessions and this was the first time they took a session in Razia’s village. Razia shared with her husband which was unhealthy because of lack of water and toilet to wash and bath and itching, dryness and pain while urinating. She shared her problem with her mother in law as well.

She told her that in the session, SEWA health saathi said that she must use a cloth during the menses, and this cloth should always be clean. She said that sometimes when it gets soiled, Razia did wash it with water and used the same strip again. Since she didn’t want anyone to see what cloth it is, she puts in on a rod, wraps it between other cloths and lets it dry. She said that she had heard of a taboo that if someone else sees the menstruation  that womans age starts to reduce and she will die early.

In the SEWA session, the saathi told Razia that all these were untrue and that menses were a natural health phenomenon to happen to women.  There is nothing to be ashamed about in this. It is important that we stay clean and hygienic during these days.

From that day, Razia’s life changed. Today she is healthy and she works towards passing on this important information to everyone in the village.