A group of 15 college-goers, under the banner of NGO Chandernagore Bhu-Sankalpa, held an awareness camp on menstrual health for women of the remote Parashmani Island in the Sunderbans, on a boat on Sunday.
Sumanta Biswas, founder secretary of the NGO and a private tutor in Hooghly’s Chandernagore, said they had started this campaign four years ago to promote awareness among women in remote pockets of the Sunderbans, after coming to know that women in these areas were kept isolated from their families during their periods. The group has already conducted half-a-dozen such campaigns in various islands .
The students, mostly girls, distributed sanitary pads to around 30 women who came to attend the camp. A physician from a private hospital in Calcutta, Banalata Adhikari, explained to the women the importance of menstrual hygiene and warned them against the dangers of neglecting their health.