Rebuilding Lives : Supporting Tribal Women In Their Livelihood And Distributing Reusable Sanitary Pads

“Covid-19 has brought many important public health issues to the table. But what has been missing at the heart of discussion is the menstrual health of women in India during the pandemic.” – Dr Megha Bhargava, IRS, Dy Commissioner, Income Tax, Mumbai.

As the entire world is making it an absolute priority to wash hands repeatedly, poor labourers and slum dwellers in our cities and villages are facing water and food shortages. It is difficult for them to follow sanitation and hygiene processes or feel interested in them when the shortages are so severe. Samarpann felt that while they cannot help people build livelihoods they could go ahead and help them with some basic necessities to maintain hygiene which can alleviate suffering to a small extent. Dr Megha Bhargava, an advisor of Samarpann says, “We can’t sit at home when the need and suffering are so immense, we had to go out and do our bit.”

When COVID-19 hit India, while the first thought that hit everyone was about empty stomachs, with their wide experience, doctors of Samarpann felt that there was an immense need to give information about hygiene, sanitation  and menstrual health apart from giving them meals.

“In India about 332 million women menstruate and only 42% follow safe menstrual hygiene practises. These statistics of the normal times can only be worsen in the times of a pandemic.” said Dr Megha Bhargava.

IRS officers collaborated with Samparna to provide ration, hygiene kits and sanitary napkins to the needy people across India. Dr Megha Bhargava and Mr Suresh Kataria who are deputy Income Tax commissioners, Mumbai decided to raise funds with Samarpann NGO. Mr Suresh Kataria spearheaded this effort along with Dr Megha Bhargava among IRS officials. He says, “I cannot bear to see such immense suffering among the poor and the vulnerable, many of my colleagues also felt very uneasy and I urged them to do their bit.” Till date Samarpann distributed 5.5 lakh cooked meals, 19,500 sanitation kits, sanitary napkins, 12,000 washable masks, 5500 sanitizers, 2,000 gloves to labourers, poor and essential care workers. They have also given food kits consisting of dry rations sufficient for a family for a month to over 5541 families in Mumbai.

Samarpann wants to distribute more sanitation kits to as many labourers  as possible to migrants who are returning from Mumbai to their native states.The sanitation kit consist of a soap, 2 washable masks and a hand sanitiser. Apart from this, Samarpann also wants to distribute 1,00,000 disposable sanitary pads across slums in Mumbai as women’s hygiene during COVID-19 and lockdown period is extremely crucial.

About Samarpann : 

Samarpann has been doing stellar work in the areas of primary healthcare and inclusive education.In order to make water, sanitation and hygiene accessible to all, Dr Ruma Bhargava and Dr Rahul Pagare set up an NGO in 2015 and named it Samarpann. Dr Ruma’s sister Dr Megha also helps from time to time in Samarpann’s work.  Dr Ruma Bhargava went on to pursue masters in public health administration after the completion of her dentistry education. After the completion of her masters, she worked in various health care programs of the Govt of India such as mission Indradanush etc., During these projects she understood that the need was far more than what the govt was able to satisfy. Thus when Samarpann began its work they were very clear from the very beginning that Samarpann will have its focus on primary healthcare and inclusive education.