PADMAN OF THE EAST
In 2017, Abhishek Boney Singha from Golaghat, Assam, went to see a carpenter in a neighbouring village. While he was there, the carpenter’s wife, who had a packet of sanitary napkins in her hand, was asked by her friend, in her 30s: “Is that a new biscuit brand?” Singha was stunned. He couldn’t imagine that women living less than 10 km away from his home in the city were unaware of this essential feminine hygiene product. “Besides economic backwardness, a lack of awareness and the social taboo around periods prevented women from using sanitary pads,” he says.
No stranger to social activism—in 2012, he had set up All and Sundry, an organisation that provided books, toys, games and school uniforms to underprivileged students—Singha got to work. “Donating sanitary napkin in these areas, however, was a big challenge as we needed to fight the mindset first,” he says.
He began with reaching out to the community elders and educated women in the villages. He also got health workers on board for this mission. To create a model of deliverance, he reached out to Suhani Jalota of Myna Mahila Foundation that has set up a factory which manufactures sanitary products and employs underprivileged women. As part of Singha’s health awareness camps, women were educated about how to take care of their health and hygiene during menstruation using locally available means and food. “My research showed that it takes at least three months to form a habit,” says Singha, who provides a hygiene kit worth Rs 250 to every woman, paid for by donations and part of his salary that he earns working in the state’s agriculture department.
Since 2017, Singha’s initiative has helped nearly 500 women directly and another 200 have been made part of his awareness camps. “I don’t see my job as only distributing. I take regular feedback and monitor the change to bring about a sustainable change,” he says.
A social health activist accredited by the health ministry, Singha says that 60 per cent of the women have continued the habit of using sanitary pads even after exhausting the free stock— an encouraging statistic for Singha who wants Assam to be declared the first “period friendly” state in India. ■
“MY JOB IS NOT JUST DISTRIBUTING. I TAKE REGULAR FEEDBACK FOR SUSTAINABLE CHANGE”