Phoolmani Devi, a resident of a village in Jharkhand, was tragically married off to an abusive husband when she was 16. Today, she is a 30-year-old independent woman who carries her son on her back to work. She mustered the courage to leave her husband when she became a ‘Rani Mistri‘ and started earning for herself. Phoolmani is one of the many women for whom the ‘Rani Mistri’ initiative was life-altering.
The Rani Mistri Initiative And Its Impact:
When the Jharkhand government fell short of male masons to construct toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), they decided to get women on board as ‘Rani Mistris‘ or ‘female masons’.
Taking root from the Simdega district, this toilet construction training program spread to other districts of Jharkhand, mobilizing female beneficiaries, self-help groups, and female labourers and setting them on the trajectory of economic freedom.
A skilled force of 50,000+ women built lakhs of toilets across Jharkhand under this campaign. This led to the glorious day of 15th November 2018, when rural Jharkhand was declared open defecation free (ODF).
Open Defecation, Women’s Rights, And MHM:
Before this initiative, about 77% of homes in Jharkhand lacked toilet facilities, resulting in an open defecation crisis. While open defecation has various health repercussions for both sexes, such as diarrhoea, typhoid fever, and hepatitis A, it has graver physical and social impacts on females.
Women alone are prone to suffer from vaginal and urinary infections, pregnancy complications, and menstrual hygiene issues. There is also an inevitable link between toilets and women’s rights. Women who defecate in the open have to go out at odd hours and in secluded places, putting them at a higher risk of getting raped.
Menstrual hygiene management is impossible without two factors – sanitation facilities and menstrual education. The ‘Rani Mistri‘ program did not just pave a way to uplift women by building toilets but also disseminated menstrual education.
The women in the village were exposed to a progressive mindset towards menstruation; enabling menstruating women to leave their houses with their heads held high.
However, the Rani Mistri program was not the sole crusader against period poverty and period stigmas in the Simdega District. In fact, the Swachh Bharat Mission is very frequently criticized for its inadequate focus on MHM. Then, what else led to the menstrual enlightenment of the Simdega District?
Simedega’s Garima Fauj:
According to a 2014 report by NGO Dasra, 70% of mothers with menstruating daughters perceive menstruation as dirty; and 71% of adolescent girls do not know about menstruation until menarche.
Having witnessed the social stigmas around menstruation plaguing the lives of various women, Satwik Mishra and Komal Pandey – two young changemakers – came up with ‘Garima Abhiyan‘, a district-wide MHM campaign in Simdega. The district administration collaborated with WSSCC ( Water Sanitation Supportive and Collaborative Council) and launched this remarkable campaign.
The campaign pivoted around three aspects, “breaking the silence, menstrual hygiene management (practices and access to absorbents) and safe disposal of menstrual waste.”
Their trained frontline workers conducted workshops on menstruation across the district in multiple schools and anganwadis (rural child care centres). The project aimed to break taboos with males being equally involved in the conversation, for example, women training male teachers, men training girl students and so on.
Women from self-help groups were also trained to produce 100% biodegradable, plastic and chemical-free sanitary napkins. These cotton napkins are stitched within 10-15 minutes and can be reused for up to a year! The campaign created strides in MHM by reaching out to 964 Anganwadi centres and 774 schools. It has successfully impacted the lives of lakhs of people in Jharkhand.
Satwik Mishra spoke to The Optimist Citizen about the campaign, “The effect of the program on the district has been monumental. It broke conventions, spread word, and most importantly, opened up new sieves for conversation. I felt delighted to see that men took part in the campaign in equal proportions. They talked about the issue with their families, and many spread awareness as master trainers.”
Simdega was once labelled as the most backward district in India. However, today, it is speculated to be the first district to run an MHM drive on a village level. The ‘Rani Mistri‘ initiative and the ‘Garima Abhiyan‘ have together left no stone unturned in the WASH and MHM domain. A cumulative application of projects like these is the way for India to achieve the feat of gender equality and effective menstrual hygiene management.