The period stigma has to end, every woman must have access to sanitary pads, says young Samreedhi Bajaj

In a land of more than 100 crore population, only 36 per cent of women use sanitary pads.

In a land of more than 100 crore population, only 36 per cent of women use stary pads.

Living in poverty in remote villages and cluttered slums, these women who are riddled with issues such as hunger and safety ignore their basic rights to menstrual hygiene.

Samreedhi Bajaj, a 16-year-old intern from Youth for Global Peace & Transformation (YGPT), along with volunteers spread across Mumbai, Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar, distributed biodegradable stary pads in association with Saathi pads to more than 500 underprivileged women.

Women in India often use dirty rags as a replacement for stary pads and sometimes nothing at all, not realizing the health risks associated with it. In a world where menstruation is still a social stigma, 70 per cent of all reproductive diseases are caused by poor menstrual hygiene.

Period as a topic is still considered a taboo. Samreedhi aims to educate the masses. "The stigma has to end. Every woman must have access to stary pads and a right to menstrual hygiene education," she said.

After a lot of research, the team discovered Saathi, a genuine and trustworthy biodegradable stary pad manufacturer based in Gujarat. With their support, Samreedhi successfully distributed 1320 biodegradable stary pads to 330 tribal ladies. The rest of the regions reached out to 900 ladies. The response was overwhelming.

Samreedhi will continue to distribute bio-degradable stary pads and educate women on menstrual hygiene. Determined to bring about a change in the world, she has constantly been working towards the betterment of humty with numerous social service activities such food distribution drives, blanket distribution, etc.

Samreedhi aims to reach out to more underprivileged women in the coming months, thus spreading happiness and eliminating diseases. Born on 2nd August 2004, a teenager, she is currently studying in Aditya Birla world academy. "Since I was 10 years old, I have always wanted to bring a change in the society, the women are the most integral part of the society and must be taken care of as their growth is the growth of the nation as a whole," she signs off.

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( With inputs from ANI )