sTalking about women’s periods in public is largely considered taboo in India. Hence, Siddipet District Police Commissioner of Telangana N. Shweta hesitated a bit at first. But she talked about menstrual health anyway. Then Health Minister T. Harish Rao also showed no hesitation. Now ‘Mission Menstrual Cup’ is gaining momentum.
His comments were just small steps. The goal was huge – to bring menstrual cups to lakhs of Siddipet women and prevent them from using dirty clothes during periods. Even for women who had moved on from cloth to sanitary pads, disposal was a problem. The drains were getting clogged. The administration had to quickly stop the environmental damage.
But policeman Sveta wanted her department to do what it wanted to campaign for. A menstrual cup had been lying idle in her cupboard for three years.
So, as a first step, she started using menstrual cups and gradually convinced her 160 women police personnel to do the same. “I realized that my employees have to use and experience it before we go out and tell others about its benefits,” Shweta told ThePrint. Until this moment, she had never thought about the impact sanitary pads have on the environment. This could be an effective strategy to tackle India’s landfill problem—12.3 billion tons Every year sanitary napkins are dumped in the country’s garbage dumps.
But it was not easy for those female officers to give up the decades-old pad for the menstrual cup, the use of which comes with fear and apprehension for many. This was followed by some heavy-handedness – workshops with gynecologists, instructions for use, videos and the all-important WhatsApp group. Women police officers started sharing their experiences, posting questions and giving real-time advice on the group.
And just like that, the taboo was broken.
How did the pilot program grow
Started as a pilot program in a ward of the district as part of a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) project by Bengaluru-based company Stonesup, with Harish Rao formally launching an initiative called Rutu Prema (Safe Period). Together it turned into a full-fledged campaign. ) at Siddipet in April. Its aim was to promote sustainable and healthy menstrual habits. And as part of the initiative, the district administration is now working towards getting six lakh menstruating women to use the cup.
“It is an ambitious target, but we will work towards it gradually. The first step is to bring about behavioral change where women can talk about it openly,” says District Additional Collector Muzzamil Khan.
In India, there is not much talk about menstrual cups on mainstream media platforms or over-the-counter sales of the product. “We realized that frontline workers are the best people to take this awareness to the grassroots level,” says Khan.
The Mission Menstrual Cup is now almost like an election or census exercise. It has enlisted government officials, teachers and health workers to spread the message.
From police to panchayat secretaries and women employees in the department to Anganwadi, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers and women in healthcare – around 7,000 women frontline workers in the district were given menstrual cups after participating in an awareness session Is. All government school teachers were first explained the benefits and then asked to buy the cups at a discounted price.
openness to talk
As the campaign gained momentum, the desire to talk about menstruation grew—one woman, one family, one village at a time.
When Aruna Shree, the panchayat secretary of Gurralgondi village, got the call at 11 pm, she spent the next 20 minutes explaining how to use a menstrual cup to a woman who had just had her period. “I was shocked, but then I was also glad that women were actually considering this option. I told her how to fold it so that it fit snugly. She wouldn’t hurt herself or damage her body.” Too scared to deliver, but I kept talking to him,” she says.
This openness to talk did not happen overnight, and there is still a long way to go, according to Aruna Shree, who went door-to-door talking about menstrual cups in Gurralgondi village of the district.
She also went to the agricultural fields showing ASHA workers how to use them. He gathered the women working in the sanitation department of the village and talked to them as well. Of the 440 menstruating women, 80 percent now use a menstrual cup, Mr. Proud says.
Other district officials also began documenting their ‘success stories’. According to Sweta, more than 90 percent of her female police personnel have started using menstrual cups, and now, the department is reaching out to the families of male police officers as well.
Another benefit of using cups is that they don’t leak. Women officers don’t worry about getting their clothes stained after hours of duty on the field or getting wet in the rain.
“My subordinate’s daughter practices cricket at the same ground where I go to run in the morning. We introduced the idea of using a cup, and once she got used to it, she came and told me how comfortable she was with it, even in her white uniform,” says Shweta.
This conversation makes the police officer happy. “What was a secret in my whole life, I am now openly talking to all the women of my district,” says Mr. Zilla Parishad chairperson V. Roja Sharma adopted the menstrual cup and asked 10 women from her family to use it as well.
“A cup is a better option than a pad, and it’s a one-time investment,” she says. It is more hygienic than pieces of cloth which often dry in hidden corners without sunlight.
Doctors say that in addition to the itching, rashes and skin allergies that women experience when using sanitary napkins, their long-term effects can also include endocrine disruptions.
The district administration is now reaching out to Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the villages to further spread this message. Almost every department has WhatsApp groups with doctors as members.
The mission doesn’t end with only women using the cup. On the ground, employees approach women who have made the switch and take their feedback. It is an ongoing process based on open communication, and it happens on the ground.
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virginity myth
The most common concern is how to safely pour a cup. Will it get lost inside? Will it be painful? What about virgins – will the cup tear the hymen? Doubts are being clarified only on personal calls, says Shanti Tummala, a Bengaluru-based doctor and environmentalist who is part of the awareness programme.
“Since the cup needed to be inserted inside the vagina, a lot of unmarried women in police and other departments were concerned that it might damage their hymen, which is a myth,” she says.
Even women officers and personnel within the administration used to call him to talk about it. Dr Shanti told ThePrint, “They used to tell me that their mothers objected to using the cup because they were not married yet and that admission could harm their virginity and harm their marriage prospects. Is.”
The doctor had to explain to him that the “concept of complete virginity” as depicted is a myth. After all, even intense physical activity can cause the hymen to rupture. “We also tell them that the cups don’t do any harm in any way,” she adds.
All the patience and effort is paying off. Already 15,000 women in the district are using the cup; The target is to take it to one lakh by next year.
(Edited by Likes)