Ludhiana girl takes up the taboo topic of menstrual hygiene

National Girl Child Day is celebrated to offer more support and new opportunities to the girls of our country. Even though, the female literacy rate is still 53.87% in our country, girls from rural India are realising the importance of education and are inspiring others as well.

A living example of this is Simranjeet Kaur of Khanpur Village, Ludhiana, who is the first girl in her area to come up with an initiative to educate girls in her community and spreading knowledge about the practice of safe menstrual hygiene practices and the availability of sanitary products along with an emphasis on the necessity of a balanced diet.

Talking about her work and mission Simranjeet shares that in India, one of the most serious health concerns for women is menstruation hygiene. “According to a National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 2015-16 Only 121 million of the country’s 336 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins”, she says while adding that menstrual hygiene management in rural regions is a major challenge due to lack of information as well as social taboos around menstruation.

Breaking this taboo at the tender age of 13 in 2019, Simranjeet, who was a student of Class VIII of Satya Bharti School, Khanpur, Ludhiana

embarked on her journey with the support of Satya Bharti School along with her teacher. Starting with 80 girls from her village, she has till now influenced over 150 girls in and around her village and she hopes to expand her awareness campaign across Punjab.

Odds stacked against her in the traditional rural milieu were huge in the beginning. “The main difficulty was dealing with the parents of a few of the girls while educating them”, she recollects. But my family members were quite supportive and with the support of my mother and teachers from Satya Bharti School, we were able to convince them of the importance of proper menstrual hygiene.

With the strong and unrelenting support of the village Sarpanch and other community members, Simranjeet and her mother not only generate awareness around menstrual hygiene and safe menstrual practices but also ensure the provision of sanitary napkins to the young girls.

Currently, she has joined Jawahar Navodhaya Vidyalaya, Khanpur but she remains committed to the cause.

In addition to her village, she has been involved in conducting weekly sessions, every Sunday, involving the girls from her nearby villages like Kalas Kalan, Ghumana, Bhadarpur and Kalas Khurd.

As COVID-19 has restricted the physical movement of many across the world, Simranjeet has not let this become a hurdle to her goal. She has continued her initiative virtually and is educating girls and their mothers with the help of her teachers and has recorded an attendance of a minimum of 30 participants each session.

She aims to be an IPS officer in order to better serve the nation.

She has received recognition on different platforms for her initiatives. She was awarded a bronze medal in the ‘Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards 2019’ (an annual nationwide search to identify and recognize school students who have made a positive difference in their communities through volunteer community service).