Jaipur, 24 January, 2020: A two-day residential workshop for young campaigners working in the space of Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) has been organised by Youth Ki Awaaz on January 25 and 26, 2020 at the Royale Lalit Hotel, Jaipur.

More than 20 young change makers who are actively working to combat issues around menstrual hygiene management will be part of the training workshop. Each of the participants will work to design their own digital campaigns at this workshop, with a clear ask for a decisionmaker. Beyond just addressing taboos & stigmas associated with MHM, the campaigners will look to tackle other issues addressing the lack of mainstream conversations around menstrual hygiene management such as informed product choices, how to integrate MHM as a part of school curriculums etc.

Over the course of the 2-days, these campaigners will be taught how to design their own campaigns, define a Problem statement for the campaign, create strategies to address the different audience segments, employ social media tools and skills effectively and influence the media and decision makers to take assertive action on their demands.

Anshul Tewari, Founder and Director of Youth Ki Awaaz said,“The conversation around MHM has been only restricted to taboos and stigmas for a long time. It is high time we look beyond this and build movements that help advance the issue to critical areas such as access to sanitation, healthcare and more. The workshops will aim to create self-sustaining communities of young people, who actively campaign on MHM and work with local decision makers to help in bettering the overall understanding around key issues related to MHM for young people in India.”

According to a 2014 study, by DASRA, it is estimated that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, which include the availability of sanitary napkins and logical awareness of menstruation. Menstruation, SRHR, and access to menstrual hygiene continue to be major contributors to gender disparity, health risks and environmental damage.

Some of the chosen campaigners include:

Nitisha Pandey, Delhi, Female, 28 years: She is a Global Shaper in the Delhi Hub, which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum. She has conducted workshops with government schools on menstrual hygiene. She has organised an event on 28th May, Menstrual Hygiene Day to bring together multiple stakeholders and discuss around the issue of Menstrual Hygiene Management. She is leading the project titled 'Let's Talk, Period' in the Delhi Hub of Global Shapers which is designed to mobilize the youth towards dialogue and action on the issue of Sustainable Menstruation through workshops, digital campaign and action projects. She has conducted her digital campaign in May, 2019 during the Menstrual Hygiene Week where she curated and designed the stories of menstruations who had started their journey on sustainable menstruation.

Sumati Joshi, 25 years, Mumbai : A class 8 Resolution Fellow, Sumati is passionate about women having access to, and educational resources for, best hygiene practices so that they can realize their ambitions. She founded Mission SanScar with this aim. With a background in engineering, work experience in niche consulting firms and enthusiasm for design thinking she hopes to address pressing human-centric issues in the private and public sector.

Sanjina Gupta, 28, Kolkata : She is an ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India) and also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health session to multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

JainishVig, 30, Jaipur: He is a Youth Accountability Advocate Fellow at Restless Development organisation. Professionally, he is a photographer and filmmaker and produced films on Transgender rights. Through his films, he creates a space to sensitize and aware people about the transgender community. He strongly believes in inclusion of transgender under the umbrella of gender equality.