Sanitary Napkins Campaign for Slum Women by Vani and Srishti

Chandigarh

5 June 2017

DIVYA AZAD

Vani Jindal and her friend Srishti Millicent have started a new initiative of distributing sanitary napkins to the women in the slums. They have taken the medium of social media to reach people and come forward to help in this cause. They launched 15 days campaign which started from 1st June and will be continued till 15th of this month.

23 year old Girls are using the means of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp. They are asking for a contribution in their Paytm Accounts minimum of Rs. 33 or else people can donate sanitary napkins after getting address details by making a call. A mail address has also been made available for queries.

As far they have collected Rs. 20,000+ but in a need of more donations, either sanitary napkins or funds. After the campaign finishes on 15th June, they will start distributing the napkins.

Vani Jindal used to visit a nearby slum area in Mohali, where she came to know about the struggle slum women face during their periods to access sanitary napkins. Talking to World Wisdom News, Vani said, ” While listening to their stories I decided to do something about their struggle. There is a lack of knowledge in people regarding menstrual cycle which has created humiliation for women. Often, one can notice how women get stared when they buy sanitary napkins. This is the reason even Women from good households avoid buying sanitary napkins publicly. Someone has to provide knowledge and this was the reason I asked my friend to help in this awareness campaign.”

Elaborating more on this, she said, “We have also written a letter to Municipal Corporation on this issue and asked them to provide disposal bins in the slum areas to dispose off sanitary napkins. I am overwhelmed with the response we are getting from people.”

She told further, “On Saturday, we have distributed napkins to few women in the slum. We will also be giving a demo to the women living in Shaheed Udham Singh colony regarding how to use sanitary napkins and how to dispose them.”