Sanitation and hygiene are key issues for girls and women, consistent with their need for privacy, dignity, safety and self-respect. Menstruation is the key indicator of health and vitality for women and girls. Managing this hygienically and with dignity is an integral part of good sanitation and hygiene.

Though a woman menstruates for a total of 40 years in her lifetime, the vast majority of women who live in the developing world do not have access to clean water, safe and private spaces for washing and cleaning, materials for absorbing menstrual blood, or facilities for proper and safe disposal of used menstrual hygiene materials. In India, it is estimated that 200 million women have a poor understanding of menstrual hygiene practices. Moreover, only 12 per cent of Indian women and girls use commercial sanitary products.

Caritas India under the aegis of Caritas Institute of Development Action & Learning (CIDAL) has stepped-in, to another milestone towards holistic social development through the introduction of Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHM) for empowering the young girls and women and indirectly empowering the forthcoming generation. This aspect was never encompassed comprehensively with the concept of women empowerment and was hardly uttered openly; be it home/ schools or other public platform and in our social work operation. But yes! Women to women and girls to girls, it was pronounced and even whispered for some help or the other. This stillness was stigmatized and filled with shame, myths and taboos, but they are now needless to keep clandestine, they are not a thing to be ashamed of or kept secret anymore, rather a thing to accept and celebrate as normal body process which has both; beauty and dignity and in great connotation for procreation foundation.

Breaking this silence has a lot of positivity in existence, and it will have a greater impact on healthier generations. Since ancient times and even in our epochs, this has been ignored and unattended, considering the process as odd, impure and dirty. Nonetheless, it is high time to break this silence henceforth. Every human being and the generation we hold today,- is the seed from this process and there is no issue of impurity or dirty wherein everyone is it; boy/girl/ men/women/ the other extended genders or the differently-abled has a pivotal role. We ought to foresee this divine connection of new life with the menstrual cycle and its natural process as divine and a boon to survival.

Consequently, Caritas India, from this silence has emerged as a kindling entity towards restoring the less attended issue as vital and breaking through this silence can bring a huge impact to various fields. A healthy body can yield and produce a healthy generation. This healthy generation must sustain human generation further in a dignified manner. Once we have health, economic, social and other aspects will fall in line by default.

Considering this vitality, and taking forward this in a holistic approach, both men and women have to play an equal role. It cannot be taken forward by women or girls alone, neither by men, but with the cooperation from both. And especially men have to come out with accountability to take forward with pride and not with shame. It is like a coin with both sides having a value in it, and so is the human society, which is the composite of men and women, the extended genders or the LGBTQ and the special groups. The beauty of humanity derives from all and each one of us has a role to contribute to its full realization.

Caritas MHM Core Team has completed four Orientation programs under CIDAL starting with the region of North-Eastern states in Jan 2021 followed by Eastern states, Northern states and Southern state of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The main inputs were on an in-depth understanding of Menstrual Health and hygiene management, MHM from the Gender and disability lens and tools and approaches. The total participants from four zones covering 20 States of India are 155 persons.

Chronology of events:

1. 15th January 2021- Northeast Zone- 35 Participants from 7 States (Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya) 5th February 2021 East Zone- 33 participants from 4 states (West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh)  
2. 25th February 2021- North Zone- 33 participants from 5 states (UP, Delhi. Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttarakhand). 
3. 12th March 2021 –South Zone- 55 participants from 3 states (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu)

Local Partners staff, other lay and religious partner’s staff of Regional Fora and staff of Caritas India. Few of the participants were men while the majority were women (both Laity and religious).

• Participants from different zones expressed that the program was educative and it could expand to the larger community and all.

Dr. J.P Mour, a gynaecologist by profession from Guwahati, assisted with the Q & A Sessions and gave inputs on causes and means to avoid infection and impact of ill management of Menstrual health and hygiene.