Role of Youth in Sustainable Menstrual Hygiene Management- Webinar Series

A disposable pad takes at least 800 years to decompose. This data itself is enough to encourage us to make a switch to sustainable menstrual products. The webinar on "Role of Youth in Sustainable Menstrual Hygiene Management" was an insightful session that helped the viewers in understanding sustainable menstrual hygiene practices and provided a basic framework for the audience to make the switch to sustainable menstrual hygiene products.

Dr. Meenakshi Bharath, Smita Kulkarni and Padma Subramanian were the panelists for the session who are experts in their own respective fields. The session was moderated by Sourav Mukherjee who is the co-founder of Youth for Good Governance.

Dr. Meenakshi Bharath is a gynaecologist by profession who is a very prominent activist in Bangalore to address the problem of solid waste management. With dedication and no-nonsense approach, she has worked in the social space over the last 10 years leading campaigns in the field of solid waste management. She is an instrumental part of the campaign for sustainable menstruation, "Green the Red." She is also a member of We Care in Mahabaleshwaram.

In the session, Dr. Bharath highlighted the fact that the more we talk about menstruation, the easier it will be to break the taboo. We need to send the message out to the whole community regarding what should be done to uphold hygiene during the menstruating days and in general which will not only be good for the health of the menstruators but also for the environment. The COVID crisis has exposed the affordability crisis when it comes to the menstrual products. Many menstruators didn't even have money to buy their food, let alone menstrual products. She then shed light on three important reasons as to why one should make the switch to sustainable menstrual products, first being the health aspect as sustainable products do not cause any infection or health risks, second being the fact that these products are environment friendly and third being the fact that they are economical i.e they are cheaper in terms of cost as compared to single use disposable pads. Even 50 years ago, India had a sustainable way of living. However, with the onset of usage of disposable things, such as paper cups, single use plastics, single use disposable pads etc. to cater to our convenience, the waste produced has gone up and so has the expenses. 16% of the time between 10 and 50 years is spent in having periods which sums up to 7 years in a lifetime on an average. And using single use disposable pads for the same, will lead to a huge amount of hazardous waste generation.

She then went on to talk about what goes into the making of the single use disposable pads and how it can be harmful not only to the environment but also to our bodies thereby making it all the more urgent for us to switch to sustainable menstrual products. Harmful ingredients like Dioxins and Furans, Pesticide residues, unknown fragrance chemicals, and adhesive chemicals. Exposure to such chemically infused products for prolonged periods might lead to chemically infused products for prolonged periods might lead to endocrine disruption, infections, allergic rashes, cancer etc. Once the disposable pads are used, they are either dumped in landfills or burnt in incinerators which has severe detrimental effects. All such reasons should be a driving force for all of us to switch to environment friendly products such as menstrual cups, cloth pads etc. and sufficient awareness should be spread about the products and people should be encouraged to make the switch.

Smita Kulkarni is a techie who left her comforting corporate job to work in the social space as an entrepreneur and environmental activist who offers sustainable and eco friendly alternatives. She is the Co-Founder of the Stone Soup In. along with her friend, Malini Parmar. She explained how on end of the spectrum there are a few people who can go to any extent, go out of their way to live sustainably whereas there are a few people on the other end of the spectrum who do not care about the environment at all. However, the majority of the people are in the middle who will do something only if it is convenient for them. For example, they will choose sustainable products only if they are in the same price range as the artificial ones and are as easily available as the ones they are using. And it is this middle category of people that we have to target and influence to switch to sustainable living. If we are able to influence them to make this switch then we will have most of our cities and consequently our country clean and sustainable. But to achieve this, we need the help of the youth as they have fresh ideas and can give new perspectives and solutions to the existing problems.

Padma Subramanian is a communication professional who has spent 10 years in the PR and corporate communications space and is now working in the social space in the area of garbage segregation and management. She has worked with TATA Trusts and with the Central Ministry of Drinking and Sanitation to implement Swachh Bharat Mission Goals for rural Karnataka. She has also worked in the area of menstrual hygiene management under TATA Trusts for rural women and girls and also spreads awareness about sustainable menstrual management. She spoke about how Stone Soup works in the waste management space and also produces sustainable menstrual products such as menstrual cups and cloth pads to ensure access to sustainable products for menstruators and generate employment at the same time as these products are produced by rural women. Stone Soup Trust works towards creating awareness about sustainable menstruation and usage of sustainable products for menstruation. Smita believes that unless one has access to sustainable menstrual products, one will end up going back to disposable pads which is why at Stone Soup they work towards producing affordable sustainable products.

The webinar ended on a note that it is the youth who can lead the way for positive change and encourage people to make the switch to sustainable living. Hence, what is required is active participation and involvement on part of the youth.