Pad Bank: Paving the path for menstrual taboo free society (Story of Transformation 41)

For the most beautiful creature

I am said, I question what’s

that beautiful to me?

For the most intelligent human

I am told, I question what

matters my being?

For I am lost.

For I am fearful

For I suffer and also differ.

Most importantly I bleed.

I bleed my heart out.

I bleed my soul out;

sometimes frequently,

sometimes infrequently.

At that moment, I hate my body.

I hate my soul.

I hate my beauty and hate my intellect too.

I long for a friend and that’s you;

my sanitary pad.

            A few days ago, I was asked to write some lines for that one material that is dear to me. As you can see it is none other than a sanitary pad. I just couldn’t find anything else that is so dear to me. I don’t like to explain the reason for it will be yet another cliché for some other person who might go through it. But, what I do know is everyone appreciates the role of a sanitary pad in any female’s life. However, this omnipresent problem is yet still an object of taboo. In certain societies of Nepal, women, especially schoolgirls, go through different challenges just because they are menstruating and there’s no availability of good sanitary pads.

Promisha Mishra, 27, an engineering student realized the same and has started working on this. Having gone through some rough years in school days during her menstrual cycle, she was thoughtful enough to think about other teenage girls going through the same problem.

In one of their causal coffee talks, she along with her friends started sharing their menstrual issues with each other. Some common norms during menstruation at their homes led them to think of what girls in rural areas might be going through. This informal talk turned into an informal research project which further showed the need to talk about menstruation and menstrual hygiene in some of the nearby villages.

            “We found that most of the government offices and school administration didn’t have any facility of sanitary pads. That made us think about how many girls might be missing their classes just because they don’t have any access to sanitary pads.” Mishra shared her story of how their attention focused towards working in the schools of Bara.

            They started approaching people and organizations through social media. Some of the NGOs like Prolaw, Sano Paila and some of their friends and local people were kind enough to lend them their supporting hands for their campaign ‘Pad Bank’. In coordination with Community Development Program, Local Ward Office and Nepal Rastirya Secondary School and some volunteers, they conducted their first workshop on menstrual hygiene and distributed sanitary pads in Bara.

                        Realizing the importance of sanitary pads and necessary medicines in schools for regular attendance of the students, after the workshop, the school principal and the ward president promised to make them available in the schools. Promisha and her team hope for similar kind of impact even in the coming days. However, the prevalence of the belief that disposal of sanitary pads leads to the barrenness in women has become a major challenge. Also, many people think it’s difficult for them to invest in such products. Meanwhile, owing to the government’s indifference, they have had to invest their energy in educating people about the importance of such products.

            Few months into the initiation, this campaign has already seen an impact. The team is now more enthusiastic to spread this to several other rural areas. For them, transformation is when the government will take menstrual hygiene also as one of its priorities and every government offices and schools will have menstrual products available for free. May small efforts like this turn into some really transformative network and some day we can see our country free of menstrual taboos.


(P.S. And with this story, I end my series 'Story of Transformation'. I will definitely be back, though. with my tits and bits of writing.)