Breaking taboos: How a 23-year-old's effort is empowering women in slums

At 23, Suhani Jalota is setting an example that's worth emulating for all girls — of the same age, younger, or even the older ones. She is the founder of Myna Mahila Foundation — an organisation that’s providing sanitation to women at their doorstep. The foundation is one of the seven charities chosen to benefit from donations received at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. 

Jalota was all of 15 when she set up this foundation in 2011 with the mission to make menstrual hygiene affordable, generating women employment in slums and to build women networks. She knew how arduous it was for women to come out and speak about sanitation, leave aside menstruation and hygiene. “Every day, on my way to school, I would observe the slums that lined the road. The poor living conditions were a testimony to how the women there survived during any time of the day. While it is easier for men, it is not so for women to just step out in open,” says Jalota. 

She chose to be a silent listener of the women and their problems. Coming from a family where discussions at the dinner table feature topics ranging from what ails the country to what solutions can be found to those issues, it came very naturally to Jalota to dig deeper into the problems of sanitation and hygiene associated with women. 

“During one of my projects in school, I did a lot of research pertaining to women issues,” says Jalota adding how the research led her to understand the root cause and how to address the same. “I found how many women would end up being constipated because they had nowhere to relieve themselves,” observes Jalota. According to Jalota, there were instances where women weren’t allowed to go out to public toilets etc. “It was very important to teach the women what ails them. How such behaviour on their part could affect their bodies”. The foundation helps the women by educating them about menstrual health and operating health camps once in three months. They also take customer feedback based on which they improve the planning and process of sanitary pads. 

Over 320 million women in India do not have access to sanitary pads. That menstruation is a taboo topic is known to all. According to Indian Family Health Survey 2015-16, only 58 per cent of the women aged 15-24 use sanitary pad. A survey done by the foundation found that most women used cloth rags due to lack of access to sanitary pads. Over 2.3 per cent of the users disinfected the rag by washing with hot water, soap and drying under direct sunlight. There are several challenges that they face while accessing sanitary pads such as, male-run medical stores, unaffordable costs, and stigma and shame associated with menstruation.

It is this taboo that the foundation is trying to break. The foundation aims at empowering women to speak aloud about issues that they are afraid to discuss — just like a myna bird (that inspired the name of the foundation). Employing women from the urban slums of Mumbai, the foundation makes them manufacture sanitary pads and sell them back to their communities thus helping improve menstrual hygiene, providing stable employment, and building a trusted network. At present, it reaches over 10,000 women a month across the slums of Mumbai city. “We are looking to reach around 25,000 women by the end of 2018,” says Jalota.

Talk about her expansion plans to other cities and Jalota is quick to respond that they want to take it slow and not compromise on the quality of the products. “Post the announcement at the royal wedding, we have received over 10-15 calls a day from people who want to either associate with us, donate, or even open franchises. However, I am weighing all the pros and cons of this. While I am open to the idea of expanding the foundation, with our base in Mumbai, it might be difficult to personally check on details,” says Jalota. However, she is open to the idea of collaborating with stakeholders who would want to set up their own sanitary pad making unit.