Earth Day 2019
Earth day which takes place on 22Â April every year was observed celebrated at the office of Environics Trust at New Delhi. The event was an effort towards making people aware regarding the current deteriorating scenario of mother Earth. Users of Sanitary Napkins made st the unit in New Delhi were also present among the audience, to learn and share their experiences.
The event started with a presentation by Mr Ajay from ‘Teach for Green’. Teach for Green is a social enterprise which works to promote the importance of environment through various activities in the field of training and skill development across India. It aims to create awareness about green energy, waste management, water conservation and more sustainable practices, with a Do-It-Yourself approach. In his presentation, Ajay gave an overview regarding the use of solar power and how it is effective in the long run. He also demonstrated how his team approach schools and teach the students the art of recycle.
Vanitha Sreedhar addressing the gathering
A brief about the start of the sanitary napkin unit was shared by Vanitha Sreedhar. She narrated the story how in 2004 the unit was started post the Tsunami in Chennai and from then Environics Trust took this initiative to other areas by training women to produce sanitary napkins and spreading awareness about mensuration health and hygiene. Currently training for sanitary napkin has been given to women in Madhya Pradesh in Khajuraho, Panna, Rewa and Satna. The unit set up in Delhi has taken a good shape and has empowered women to come forward. A short video ( see the video) made on how the unit functions was shown to the audience. The women involved in the unit are self-sustained and are able to break even in regards to the unit and spreading awareness to their users.
Professor Medha addressing the gathering
Taking this opportunity professor Medha from Satyawati College, Delhi University amalgamated earth and women stating that women have been saving earth since the beginning. She further added that mensuration is still a taboo topic in many parts of India. Giving examples from everyday life like how women are not allowed to enter any holy place during their periods or to touch pickles, she further added that if there would have not been this shameful thing called ‘mensuration’ then there would have not been any life on the planet. Praising Environics Trust for the efforts the organization takes to reach out to women especially in the rural set up to not just educate them about health and hygiene but also to provide them with a livelihood opportunity by training them to make sanitary napkins. She urged people to join and spread the cause and help the organization.
Painting by one of the participants
Shalini Shrinit who runs an organization called ‘Mera Rang’, known to highlight social causes specifically & surrounding gender using digital media also discouraged the use of plastic and urged to sensibly use plastic in any form. Talking about gender she mentioned that it is indeed a vast topic, we talk about equality but when we look closer there are work divisions made and particular work is assigned to particular person, for example cooking and other household chore is assigned to only women of the family. However, she further added that now things are changing even though the pace at which it’s happening is slow but we can definitely see the change, we can see male members coming forward and sharing the household responsibility.
Several users of the sanitary napkins produced by the Delhi Unit were present among the audience and Shalini ji added that a lot of women even in the urban areas don’t use sanitary napkin and are shy while discussing about it, therefore it was good to see so many women coming forward and thinking about their health and even educating other women. The participants shared their experience of using the clean handmade napkin, everybody present was happy with the napkin and expressed that they will keep purchasing the napkin and even spread the word about it.
children taking part in the painting competition
Mr Surender Balhara who is AAP councillor also marked his presence. He was shown around the sanitary napkin and mushroom units in office, he was explained about how these function and discussed how he can help in running the units and help the surroundings. Expressing his concern about the environment, he requested people present in the gathering to make less use of plastic bags and do their bit to save the environment as we have to answer to the future generation. Giving example of other countries he mentioned that we are lucky to have enough liberties, people are fined to smoke a cigarette in an open space. We need to mould ourselves according to the current situation, and this can start from our own household itself like not overusing the facilities we have such as limited use of ac. Simultaneously a painting competition was organised for the children present at the gathering. This was an attempt to encourage them to come forward and participate and to understand what perception they hold about the environment.
To conclude the event and to further broaden the perspective of everyone present at the gathering, 2018’s Oscar winning documentary film “Period. End of Sentence” was screened. This documentary was a way to not only know stories about women learning to use a sanitary napkin machine, acquire more about mensuration health and hygiene but also to be empowered enough to rise above the taboos in India which revolves around mensuration.
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