How Bihar’s Aarti Singh is Leading Empowerment through Working for Menstrual Hygiene Regionally

The urban landscape comprising menstruators might have reached the discussion and dissonance over using menstrual cups; the rural segment of India is much behind. As per the National Family Health Survey, a few states in India rank the lowest in menstrual hygiene, and Bihar is one of them. 

Owing to various socio-cultural restrictions, rural women have been grappling with poor hygiene standards. While menstrual cups—competitively groups trending amongst urban groups— are still a far-flung topic for them, there are challenges even in accessing sanitary napkins.

In a rural village of Bihar’s Darbhanga, however, Aarti Singh is making sure that the menstruating girls and women do not have to face the challenges in accessing the pads. Singh has established a sanitary pad bank for the adolescents in her village Makhanaha.

For over the past five years now, Aarti has been leading an adolescent group named, ‘Aacharan Kishori Samooh’ where she not only helps the girls get sanitary pads but also works with them to make paper bags to carry those pads. 

Singh has been working with a Darbhanga-based local supplier that provides the sanitary pads to Singh’s bank. “We usually order for at least 50 pads in a month and provide these to 15-16 girls in a month,” says Singh in a telephonic conversation.

Pandemic and a hit to hygiene

Born in a family of farmers, Aarti was just 17 years old when she first established the bank in 2019 for the women around her. As she came in contact with the Kishori Samooh, a collective of 20 girls facilitated by Population Foundation of India, an NGO working in the field of population dynamics, gender equity, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH), her journey of being a trailblazer began. 

“I was trained for 10-12 days about the importance of hygiene practices and menstruation, after which I started taking such sessions with other girls of my village,” says Singh, who is currently studying B.A. Singh, along with the foundation, surveyed their community and reached out to 6,000 adolescents, which further helped her understand the difficulties that youth, especially young women in her area, were facing with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. “There has been a lack of awareness about a lot of things related to reproductive health in my area,” she says.

Due to the survey, Singh also realised that there was an inadequate supply of proper medicines and no counselling in schools. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the distribution of the pads in 2020. Recognising the issue, Singh reached out to the local authorities and, eventually, the then Health Minister of Bihar, Sri Mangal Pandey. 

“I wanted to raise the issues being faced by the girls in my area and how the distribution of sanitary pads was stopped by the health authorities in the pandemic,” Singh recounts. It was due to these efforts that adolescent-friendly health clinics were established in her area, and a supply of proper medicines was also regularised in the district. 

However, while the logistics were solved, Singh also had to deal with the social barrier in her sessions. “The girls' parents would get sceptical about their daughters attending the sessions because they were afraid that I would teach them something ‘wrong’,” she says.

While Aarti joined hands with Asha workers for the distribution of pads, she also spread awareness about cybersecurity. Recently, Singh helped a teenage girl who was being blackmailed. “We registered our complaint on the cybercrime portal for timely action,” she says.

Currently, Singh has been giving the sanitary pads in almost half the MRP that are available in markets and mentions that the girls feel easy to take them from her. “They do not have to go so far to the market for the pads, and it also makes them feel better to talk to a woman about menstrual issues,” she adds. 

Already a trailblazer in her area, Aarti Singh aspires to become a nurse to be able to help the underprivileged sections of society.