Coinciding with the World Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28th May 2021, FairGaze and India Is Us joined hands for the World Menstrual Hygiene Day Campaign aimed at spreading awareness around menstruation, sustainable menstrual hygiene practices, dispelling age-old myths and stereotypes, thus facilitating more conversation about periods among the school community. Additionally, this campaign is aligned with the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG-3 ‘Good Health & Well-Being’.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-2016, only 36 percent of women use sanitary pads i.e., out of 336 million menstruating women only about 121 million women are using sanitary napkins, locally or commercially produced. In India still, more than 300 million women and girls rely on old clothes/rags. These alarming statistics calls for the urgent need to spread menstrual health and hygiene practices and access to sanitary napkins.
FairGaze, leading student-focused engagement ecosystem for social and emotional learning, in association with India Is Us, a Corporate Social Responsibility support initiative working with NGOs, joined their forces together to conduct the #OneDayForMensturalHygiene campaign. The campaign got a reach of over 5 lakhs and over 25,000 engagements in social media. In addition to engaging 5,000+ students of both the genders from over 80 schools across 16+ states, the campaign also aims the distribution of 50,000 sanitary napkins in the slums of DelhiNCR.
Dr. Madhumati Singh, Founder Director of FairGaze said, “With #OneDayForMenstrualHygiene campaign, our prime focus was on facilitating conversation around period positivity and sustainable hygiene practices. We are glad to be able to do that. There’s an urgent need to sensitize the society on this, while also dispelling myths that have restricted freedom of women for long”. She also highlighted that this campaign is aligned with the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG-3 ‘Good Health & Well-Being’.
The campaign concluded with announcement of winners among the participants, who were able to reach out to highest number of people based on the engagements they got on their picture holding the palm of their hand carrying two dots – red dot and green dot signifying periods and eco-friendly practices. An informative panel discussion on 28th May 2021, led by Mr. Vivek Atray (Advisor at FairGaze), Ms. Priyanka N Jain (Founder of Hygiene and You & Soch Green), and Ms. Annika Lundkvist (Chief Editor of Pacific Roots Magazine). The campaign was supportedby Unicharm, AIESEC, World Parliament, Setu-Bridging The Gap and Eco Femme.
Unicharm, a Japanese company that manufactures feminine hygiene products under the popular brand Sofy, extended its support to the FairGaze Menstrual Hygiene Day campaign and donated about 50,000 sanitary pads for distribution among the needy during this pandemic.
SDG School Program by FairGaze: FairGaze SDG Program is an initiative to help schools actively engage students in achieving Sustainable Development Goals. India Is Us extends support to FairGaze in gathering the support of stakeholders from NGOs and corporate to make a measurable impact on creating awareness among students, helping them to become responsible future citizens of the country.
FairGaze is the leading student-focused engagement ecosystem for the school community, which works with various stakeholders and policymakers, including organizers of premium events associated with the education industry. FairGazehas engaged with over 1 million students from over 15,000 schools across India.
About India Is Us (I2U)
India Is Us (I2U) is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) support initiative determined to help NGOs perform better through capacity building and sustainable growth. I2U works with numerous NGOs across India and is focused on twelve causes, including literacy and education, health and nutrition, environmental conservation, women empowerment, poverty alleviation, care for the elderly, animal welfare, skill development, inclusivity for people with disability, child welfare, WASH and heritage.
