Promoting awareness on menstruation to raise the health index of the region, Tata Steel organised a health check-up cum awareness session with the adolescent girls and ladies at Meralgara village, Noamundi on the occasion of Menstrual Hygiene Day. May 28 is celebrated as the Menstrual Hygiene Day worldwide and the theme this year is “It’s Time for Action”.

A team from Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) managing Regional Initiative of Self Sexual Health for Today’s Adolescent (RISHTA) project at Noamundi shared valuable insights on how menstrual cycles work, how sanitary napkins are better than cotton padding and what are benefits of healthy food intake during menstruation. The objective of the session was to create a platform where the adolescent girls and village ladies speak freely about the much-tabooed topic and understand what their mindset is on menstruation.

Sharing her experience from the session, Ms Jyoti Das from Noamundi Inter-College said, “In villages, we have no real knowledge about menstruation cycle. During this session, we came to know that eating healthy food is very important and that we should use hygienic sanitary napkins to avoid infections during periods. All of us learned so much. I thank the team from Tata Steel who provided us with vital information.”

During the session Mr Amit Kumar, Zonal Coordinator, RISHTA Project, Noamundi and Ms Anjana Devi, Adolescent Health Worker (AHW), TSRDS, Noamundi explained adverse effect of unhygienic menstrual practices. Insights on Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) which is a common infection, that occurs if hygiene is not maintained during menstruation where also shared. Ms Anjana, explained that white discharge, rashes, itching, urinal infection and pain while urinating during menstruation are symptoms of RTI. At total of 30 students aged 10-19 from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidayalaya, Kerala English Medium School and Professor Abdul Barik Memorial High School participated in the session along with village ladies.