It had all started with an accident. The monthly general meeting of our little magazine was already underway when one of our female members, who was already running late called up. She stated that she had left for the meeting and was almost halfway, when her periods had started. Having no sanitary pads in her possession at that moment, she had to return home and was unable to attend the meeting.

Fast forward to 2024, today, we cater to more than 5 lakh women in extremely rural areas, all over Bengal and help them avail sanitary pads at their doorsteps at extremely cheap prices, exponentially less than what the market has to offer! Menstruation, or periods, is still a hush-hush, even in the modern society. People still treat menstruation as the taboo, speaking of which they shall be doomed to hell and shall burn for all of eternity. Maybe even suffer in hell, frying in the Satan’s cauldron or crawling the doomed lands as a puny insect!

Anyway, jokes apart, to be very honest, the current situation of the society is hardly something to joke about. Ignorance and negligence with respect to periods has spread its roots deep within our society. Especially the so-called advanced urban mainstream societies still speak of it as the “woman problems,” let alone their rural counterparts. However, the main problems hardly end there, rather that’s where they start. Too much of this arrogant ignorance on periods is not only affecting the health conditions of women dwelling in the rural areas, but even in urban slums. Moreover, the ignorance has given rise to loads of fake myths and distorted knowledge on various aspects like periods, menstrual cycle, vaginal health, usage of sanitary products and the subsequent health conditions related to it.

That phone call during meeting really had us thinking if we were really doing enough. Menstruation and menstrual hygiene aren’t just about sanitary pads and stuff. It’s about awareness and enabling people and this is a serious problem that is being faced by women spread across the state. That was when we came to the decision that just writing literature on social issues isn’t really enough unless we decide on what to do about it.

But one may ask, why exactly focus on menstruation and periods?

And why the big deal regarding awareness? Factually speaking, menstruation is still considered a taboo in the Indian society. Even today, the cultural and social influences on people create a major hurdle in ensuring that the adolescent girls are given proper knowledge on menstrual hygiene. Mothers are also reluctant to talk about this topic with their daughters and many of them lack scientific knowledge on puberty and menstruation. The main reasons for this taboo still being relevant in the Indian society are high rate of illiteracy especially in girls, poverty and lack of awareness about menstrual health and hygiene. Only less than 18 per cent of Indian women use sanitary pads.

Menstruation in our country is associated with various myths and restrictions leading to lack of awareness among adolescent girls. Insufficient menstrual hygiene practices are the cause of stress associated with menstruation and reproductive tract infections. Sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS are not openly discussed in our society making adolescents vulnerable to them. A large number of girls in many less economically stable families drop out of school when they begin menstruating. More than 77 per cent of menstruating girls and women in India use an old cloth, which is often reused, ashes, newspapers, dried leaves and husk sand during periods.

To speak of Bengal individually, an average of only 50% women use sanitary methods like pads etc. during periods. Whereas, of the remaining percentage, 43% women use cloth as an alternate measure due to the unaffordability of sanitary pads as well as lack of awareness. As a matter of fact, 50% of women in India aged between 15-24 years still use cloth for menstrual protection. This includes Bengal as well. The majority of sanitary methods are sought after in the urban counterparts, but the rural areas are heavily lagging behind. For this reason, the biggest need is of awareness on menstruation and menstrual hygiene.

But what is Ghore Ghore Sanitary Pad? Also, have you heard of the “Padman of Bengal?”

To us, the biggest challenge was to work for those women and girls who were suffering from poor menstrual health and lack of awareness, and parallelly make “periods” a topic to talk about in the society for the greater good.

This whole idea was the brainchild of one of our founding members, Mr. Sobhan Mukherjee. We had started with installing vending machines in the public washrooms of Kolkata. The idea was that, with thousands of women walking the streets of Kolkata, anybody anytime could have her periods. That was exactly why we started installing sanitary pad vending machines in the public washrooms, so that the women pedestrians could easily avail them, if they ever had their periods all of a sudden. The aim was to make sure, that like our female colleague, nobody shall ever have to give up on their important daily life works, just due to periods.

But let’s be honest, if you think we had not faced any challenges or barriers in our journey towards elevation of this taboo that has been carried on across generations like a legacy, you are dead wrong.

Where do we even begin. The challenges and the threats started from vocal abuse and calling out on us, labelling us as shameless, retards, degenerates and even lunatics. And they ended at us being forced out of institutions and buildings where we had gone just for permissions to install vending machines. What was funny is that, the so-called government departments and their workers who were supposed to work for the upliftment of this social taboo, themselves called us insane and forced us out just for the crime of asking permissions to carry out our work on awareness.

However, when there is a will, there is a way.

Slowly, our works started gaining the attention of the media and with that, came the support of established personalities, local government individuals and authorities, and most of all the general masses. We finally succeeded in installing vending machines in the public washrooms of Kolkata. A feat, that was a first of its kind in the country, led to the Pan-Indian actor Akshay Kumar himself calling Sobhan, and felicitating him with the honour of being thereafter as the “Padman of Bengal.” Celebrities like Ritabhari Chakraborty came to our aide and collaborated on our project. It became a great pride for us when our project got awarded on the National level by the Government of India, followed by numerous other rewards. Our venture was also researched upon as a case study and published by the UNO itself.

But the why the name “Ghore Ghore Sanitary Pad?”

The name was the idea of Sobhan as well. Installing vending machines in the public washrooms could only do so much. But we had to reach out to the people in the rural areas spread across the state, even in the most inaccessible areas. And with that aim in mind, we named our project “Ghore Ghore Sanitary Pad.”

The idea was to spread awareness among the most rural areas in the state, and educate the people on menstrual hygiene and periods, and equally make sure that good quality sanitary pads were made available to them at an affordable price for everyone to use.

It is indeed a matter of pride for us to mention that our menstrual health awareness programme “Ghore Ghore Sanitary Pad” has been our prime umbrella project since then, that has involved numerous activities and events, and has been in execution since the last decade and has slowly spread its impact and influence with time.

Aimed at women empowerment and menstrual hygiene awareness, the programme has touched more than 5 lakh people till date, executed more than 3000 first chain awareness camps and continues to do so along with focus on child Trafficking, Adolescent Training, Domestic Abuse, Family Planning and other accessorial aspects as well besides its main focus on the awareness of menstrual health and hygiene.

Also, our self-help groups set up in every project site till date, provide the rural women with cheap and affordable good quality sanitary pads, and in the process, the women working through the units also earn a living and a mode of financial stability, serving two-fold impact.

Till date, we have conducted more than 3000 awareness camps on menstrual hygiene alone, and have reached out to more than 5 lakh people. Afflatus Foundation has reached out all over the state of Bengal, ranging from Sundarbans in the south to Purulia in the west to as far as Darjeeling in the north and Murshidabad towards the east. We have tapped into all the 23 districts of Bengal through this venture, working not only on awareness but on livelihood, health and education scenario as well.

Afflatus Foundation also creates “Change Agents” as part of awareness programmes who carry forward the knowledge creating waves of awareness.

The future we foresee …………………………

To conclude, all we can say is that the journey in the last 10 years has not been as easy one. However, our sole aim from the very beginning was the welfare and development of the quality of life of the women living in the extremely rural areas of Bengal as well as in the urban slums. We have learnt quite a lot, and have tried to give back from the lessons we have learnt.

Menstrual hygiene, still the taboo that it is, needs much work to be done in India as well as in the state of Bengal. However, it is indeed a matter of hope that women, as individuals are longing to learn and better their lives, be it the slums in the urban pockets or inaccessible extensive rural villages. This gives us the power to strive through despite all hardships and barriers, and realise the dream that we are fighting for, “Towards a Better Tomorrow.”

In this fight, in this journey, we are always more than welcoming and waiting for more and more hands to join us in the struggle for a better future. The more organisations shall come together with us, the better we will be able to serve the people. Afflatus Foundation, places its confidence in its warriors, and believes in realization of dreams. Loyalty, Dedication and Hardwork is what we believe in, and said in the very beginning, one can undoubtedly place their hopes on us, since we believe in carrying out any venture with utmost efficiency, if not utmost perfection!

Afflatus Foundation, awaits more organisations and more helping hands in this endeavour towards a future free from taboos and inequalities. Towards a better tomorrow, what do you say?