SEWA Bharat

During our health sessions on sexual and reproductive health, we found several issues related to menstrual health and hygiene which in return is affecting the community massively. Almost 60% of the women suffer from the issue of vaginal discharge followed by severe irritations like rashes, itching and burning sensations and many more. Many of the women were tested and diagnosed in our Obstetrician – Gynecological camps with urinary tract infection/RTI’s (Reproductive Tract Infection). When probed, it was found that there is very poor knowledge on menstrual and personal hygiene. Low scarcity of water and non-availability of toilets lead to bathing only once a week which is one of the major causes of infection.

As per the culture and customs in Bihar, menstruation is considered as a taboo which shouldn’t be spoken about or seen in the society. Some of the girls are forced to drop-out from school at puberty and those who are allowed to continue do not attend school during their menstruation period since schools too don’t have proper toilets for girls. This was even seen during our intensive fact finding visit along with Simavi.

During the stakeholder consultation, it was found that there are common practices during menstruation which lead to serious health risks. Unawareness and myths in the society pertaining around menstruation which causes men and boys to be insensitive about the concept of menstrual hygiene and continue the trend of associating it with taboo

Some of the important issues regarding common menstrual practices are as follows:

• Use of dirty clothes lead to infection.
• Non-affordability of sanitary pads due to poverty.
• Non availability of sufficient water for washing the clothes that they plan to reuse
• Usage of other materials like ash powder in order to soak menstrual blood.
• Use of same cloth or pad whole day major cause of skin irritation around vaginal area
• Trend of wiping from back to front following urination or defecation due to which bacteria can travel easier into vagina
• Unprotected sex which puts both men and women under increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases.
• Unsafe disposal of used menstrual clothes
• Lack of awareness about importance of hand-washing after changing a sanitary cloth or pad
• Lack of knowledge about proper drying

The working area (Munger and Bhagalpur) are under developed districts of Bihar with very poor social, economic and health indicators. Along with other health problems, the menstrual health and hygiene related complications are very common in the area. For most women the menstruation days are uncomfortable; they experience pain, discomfort and lack energy. In socially backward areas, girls and women experience additional constraints when they menstruate. They are stigmatized and are expected to withdraw from social life, which has significant impact on their personal development, economic status and eventually their health. Lack of knowledge of ways to maintain proper hygiene – even at home – often leads to infections. Since women often don’t have access to affordable, good quality sanitary napkins or knowledge and access of proper WASH facilities, it is almost impossible to manage their menstruation in a healthy way. Lack of cooperation or sensitivity from male counterparts causes a continuation in the cycle of humiliation and lack of support to adopt hygienic measures that women face during menstruation cycle.

The proposed goals of the Making Periods Normal project are:

Women and men including adolescent girls and boys in Munger and Bhagalpur will be mobilized via awareness camps on menstrual health and hygiene management and to accept menstruation as a normal process.

Health of 150,000 women and girls in Munger and Bhagalpur will be improved through increased knowledge of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and will be free from infections.

Campaigns

SEWA has proposed a theory of change which is illustrated as below. The project will adopt the following strategies to achieve the desired goal of the project:

• To create the awareness amongst women and girls on the importance of hygiene management through different stakeholders meetings and BCC activities. This will make women and girls to understand the risks of bad menstrual hygiene, its adverse affect in body, related infections, and maintain the menstruation hygiene in their life free from all taboos and also increase demand of sanitary napkins
• To create awareness on a large scale amongst men and adolescent boys to work towards long term goal of eradicating taboos on menstrual cycle and provide them with awareness and benefits of ensuring hygiene.
• Capacity building of ASHA, ANM and AWWs on MHM to spread the awareness to the community as well as to increase the demand of sanitary napkins.
• Orientation of PRI (Panchayati Raj Insitutes) members and strengthening the structured committees at community level to make the environment conducive to work on MHM and also help to remove taboos.
• Advocacy at each level to ensure the services and supplies available for women and girls related to MHM with the help of other network partners.
• Create a demand for sanitary napkins amongst women and girls.

The various activities undertaken by SEWA Bharat are:

• Organizing and Capacity Building: Organise women to increase their bargaining power; ensure that their voices are heard and organise training and workshops for capacity building.
• Micro-finance: Help women in their work towards Capital formation at the household levels by providing them the necessary financial tools i.e. continuous savings, credit etc.
• Employment generation and Skill Development: Improved livelihood and market opportunities for women workers and skill enhancement program adolescent girls
• Social security: Increased access of women workers to social protection entitlements, including health, insurance, child care and pensions
• Advocacy and Networking: Women worker’s concerns are visibilised, leading to increased recognition of their rights and entitlements by organizing campaigns and linking it with the medias

Footprint

Currently SEWA Bharat is spread in 14 states across India covering over 1.9 million women members engaged in numerous activities like home based work, street vending and hawking, manual labours, service providers and small producers.

Our Reach

In 2015-2016, SEWA impacted 57,000 women and men in Munger and Bhagalpur.

In the year 2016, the project will focus on the women and girls of reproductive age group of the community which also includes the SHG members, men and adolescent boys. The focus will also be on the out of school youths in 15 panchayats of Munger and 10 panchayats of Bhagalpur district.

The project will focus on women and girls of the reproductive age-group from the marginalized, vulnerable and the minority communities in 15 Panchayats of the 4 blocks of Munger District and 10 Panchayats in Bhagalpur district in 2 blocks in the second year. In 2016, Sewa Bharat will reach out to 2,00,000 women/ girls and men/boys and various SHGs through the MPN program.