Meet the ‘pad woman’ of Chennai

Deciding to help to bring about change, Pallavi on March 5 reached out to her contacts on social media and collected nearly 45 packets of sanitary napkins. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, she then reached out to the needy and homeless women in her neighbourhood, NGOs and even a labour camp for construction workers where she distributed them.

Over the course of her distribution of the sanitary napkins to around 25 women in NGOs like Udhavum Ullangal Illam in Maraimalai Nagar, on the outskirts of the city and the Christ Faith Home For Children in Manapakkam, Pallavi says she discovered more about people’s awareness on menstrual hygiene. “The girls at Christ Home For Children were aware of pads and used it regularly because someone was also providing it to them. The women at Udhavum Ullangal were a little less aware, with some using cloth and some using pads. But the women at the labour camp I stopped by were completely unaware of sanitary pads,” said the 25-year-old.

According to Pallavi, most women she interacted with did not buy sanitary napkins as they were expensive, and thus preferred using cloth pieces to pads. One study estimates that 82% of women in India use other materials like cloth and rags to such napkins, she added.

One woman, Pallavi said, claimed that they throw away the cloth after single use, and do not wash them, which in turn can be a potential health hazard. Pallavi added that she gave a few tips and pointers on the proper usage of sanitary napkins at all locations.

“One thing I noticed when I was interacting with these women is that there still is stigma around menstruation. Given their backgrounds, they were all raised in families where menstruation was considered taboo, and so some of them even asked to have the packets wrapped in newspaper first before handing them over,” Pallavi said. This stigma must be done away with through awareness camps to ensure proper menstrual hygiene, she added.

“Government support is a must for this. They need to ensure that these pads are available for women at either a subsidised rate or at no cost, because these women are willing to use it only if it is available easily to them,” Pallavi said.

Pallavi, along with a few friends, hope to collect and distribute sanitary pads to needy women every month henceforth.