This man is on a mission to spread awareness on menstruation

Hyderabad: With women in many rural areas of the country still reluctant to talk about menstruation, the NGO Humans for Humanity founded by Anurag Chauhan is on a mission to educate the rural population on menstrual hygiene. They are also assisting transmen who are unperturbed on their menstrual health. Anurag’s life took a turn when […]

Hyderabad: With women in many rural areas of the country still reluctant to talk about menstruation, the NGO Humans for Humanity founded by Anurag Chauhan is on a mission to educate the rural population on menstrual hygiene. They are also assisting transmen who are unperturbed on their menstrual health.

Anurag’s life took a turn when he read a report on deaths of women due to poor menstrual hygiene. “I read a report stating that about 1.8 lakh Indian women die every year, due to menstruation-related problems,” says Anurag.

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The Wash Project

The Wash Project – (Women, Sanitation, Hygiene,) which was started by Humans for Humanity in Dehradun with a group of women has now reached over 3 million people in more than six States.

The main purpose of the project was not just to spread menstrual awareness among women but to assist women with their needs by looking at three factors- affordability, availability, and accessibility. “The organization can provide sanitary napkins once, but we won’t be available every time they need one. So to end that problem, we started teaching rural women to make their sanitary napkins so that they won’t get sick and also will be independent,” Anurag says.

“During the lockdown, many women in urban areas had to suffer as napkins weren’t in the list of essentials. This is when women from rural areas sent biodegradable cost-efficient napkins.” he says.

 

Working with Transmen

As for transmen, who are assigned female gender by birth but they identify themselves as males wrapped in a female body, the organisation started working with them and included them in the list to make them aware of the menstruation process.
“Most transmen hate that they menstruate and tend to ignore the process that leads to health issues. Right now we are helping a good number of transmen but quietly so that their privacy or mental health status are not compromised,” Anurag says.

 

Focus on school level in Telangana

Currently, the NGO is working in six States, including Telangana. The team focuses on school-going girls to raise awareness about the programme. So far, more than 500 girls have attended workshops in various Telangana schools. In the coming days, they will hold workshops in many state schools to spread awareness.