Preeti Tamang, age 34
is a local woman of Changunarayan who stayed at home and ran her handmade
crafts business on a personal level. She was always interested to work on her
own and be independent. However, insufficient education and job opportunity
were causing hindrances to her dreams. She had got the training on making teddy
bears and flowers in the village; however, they were not sufficient for her
sustainable income. Then, on 2015, ICA Nepal, an organization who had
constructed the Women’s and Children Learning Center in Changunarayan back in
2002, started its renovation post earthquake and also organized various
trainings. In the course of participating in one of those trainings, Preeti
happened to join the training on making low cost sanitary napkins in the
village. A two day training was organized where trainers explained on how to
use the machine and prepare the sanitary pads. Belonging to a community where
menstruation was talked about silently only among women, Preeti felt amazing to
be in a group where trainers were male and talking about it quite openly. Then,
out of 10 women who received the training, she was one of the finest makers who
started producing the napkins later. Now, along with Preeti, 4 other women are
producing the “Surakhshya Pads” where they are earning 3000/- t0 4000/- per
month in the initial stage. Preeti believes when the product hits the market,
they are sure to earn more.
Sanitary napkins is one
of the basic Menstruation Management Material which is however costly and
haven’t reached to rural areas much. Rural women still use cloth pieces, which
are reusable however, in lack of proper hygiene awareness, are prone to several
health risks. Therefore, “Surakhsya Pads Uddhyog” is one of such enterprise
that not only empowers women financially by providing them the employment and
skills but also addresses one of the most challenging issue of time – Menstrual
Hygiene Management.
Lack of knowledge on
menstrual hygiene and severe social restrictions to perform healthy practices
have kept women of Nepal constantly at health risks. While there are rise in
use of customized cotton pads, women are still using the old rags being more
prone to diseases. Some of them don’t know about the use of pads where some
can’t afford the expensive sanitary napkins. In Rural area, girls are compelled
to miss school during their periods. Even in Urban area female have to suffer
as the toilets aren’t female friendly and lack of sanitation facilities.
During period women and
girls need extra care and hygiene. The poor menstrual hygiene can have
unpleasant impact on the psycho-social wellbeing of women and girls (e.g.
stress levels, fear and embarrassment, social exclusion and risk their health during
menstruation). The lack of proper washing facilities and sanitary surrounding
are creating many challenges which women keep mostly to themselves. The proper
education on maintaining menstrual hygiene, timely changing sanitary pads, ways
to properly dispose the pads should also be given parallelly to develop
menstrual health and hygiene holistically among women.
Considering these
problems ICA Japan and ICA Nepal has started a new initiation towards Menstrual
Hygiene Management. In support of ICA Japan and ICA Nepal Local woman groups of
Changunarayan are producing low-cost disposable sanitary napkins called
“Surakshya Pads”
The local women from
the Changunarayan community have begun using the Surakhshya Pads and they are
commenting it very comfortable and leakage free which have enhanced their
confidence and self esteem. With this, the talk on menstrual hygiene has
started. Women have started breaking their hesitation and treating menstruation
as a normal biological process. ICA
Nepal believes this is the approach that we require in order to break the long
rooted traditions and taboo regarding menstruation.