Awareness drive at Menstrual Festival

The Festival was to celebrate periods and bring in a change in the society's mindset towards it.

As part of the Festival a seminar to engage different stakeholders involved in menstrual hygiene, in a conversation on menstruation, women's reproductive health and hygiene, was organised.

The Festival was attended by Mr Sudhakar Rao, Director ICFAI, Dr Prabha Agrawal, gynaecologist, and Mr Kamalakanta Nayak, founder, Good Universe, Dr Anusha Pilli and Ms Triparna Banerjee co-founders, Menstrual Festival, Mr Arun Kumar, CEO, Elemantra Enterprises Private Limited, Ms Sapna Karthik, Vice Chairperson HYLC, Ms Mahalakshmi,B, Hyderabad Ambassador Eco Femme, Dr Mamatha, Exicutive Director Tharuni and Ms Anju Arora, Co-Founder The Period Hud and among others.

Mr Arun Kumar said, menstrual waste disposal is the biggest challenge being faced by the society and its is becoming insurmountable and burgeoning problem by the day with more and more of it piling up.

Especially in the cities it is becoming a menace and can be a larger social issue in the days to come. In the absence of proper disposal mechanism, flushing down the toilet is the easiest solution resorted to dispose in the urban areas, but this leads to choking of the drains or it settling in a water body into which the drain empties, leading to pollution of the lake, infecting all flora and fauna and other health hazards associated with them.

The other option is throwing it in the bin, but the sanitary workers or the animals digging into the waste can get infected and spread it. Today's pads are made of different materials, some are made of biodegradable material which don't cause much harm to the environment, but the gels or polymers used in some are not destructible and take 40 to 50 years to disintegrate if left like that. The only way to get rid of it is total destruction of menstrual waste and the best way to do that is by burning.