Jamshedpur-based social outfit Nischay’s work of collecting 5,000 sanitary napkin packets to promote menstrual hygiene among rural schoolgirls will be soon recorded in Limca Book of Records 2019.
The social outfit has received a confirmation email from Limca Book of Record Entries that their record of collecting 5,000 sanitary napkins within a time frame of two months and 12 days will be featured in the in the 2019 edition of Limca Book of Records. The email signed by Arya Priyadarshini, editorial assistant, Limca Book of Records, confirmed that the certificate for this will be processed by February 2019.
In June, members of Nischay sent an application to claim a record after collecting 5,000 napkin packets between March 16 and May 28, the latter which happens to be World Menstrual Hygiene Day. Nischay had involved more than 400 people, including social workers, students from schools, colleges and manufacturers of sanitary napkins in the collection drive.
Alongside, Nischay raised awareness in 14 government schools across three blocks Ghatshila, Potka and Jamshedpur of the East Singhbhum district among schoolgirls to use pads instead of unhygienic cloth. These included Tangrain middle school, Khukradih high school and Mahulia Adarsh Madhya Vidyalaya in Ghatshila.
Finally, when the outfit had decided that it had collected enough number of sanitary napkin packets and had made the rural schoolgirls responsive to using pads, pad banks were opened in these 14 schools, secretary of Nischay Tarun Kumar said. “Getting rural schoolgirls to use pads was a big change in their mindsets, something which will help them in the long run as far as their health and mobility are concerned,” he said.
He added that 5,000 sanitary napkin packets was not a big number by any standards but even so their claim was accepted as a record, which went on to show how little work had been done in this area.
Nischay seeks donations for pad banks at the rural schools, which is an ongoing project to promote menstrual health and break taboos. “Interested donors can visit our Nischay page on Facebook for details,” Kumar said.