Menstrual Hygiene Management

The Tata Water Mission promotes safe and effective menstrual hygiene management in around 900 villages, covering a stakeholder base of over 200,000 women and 45,000 men of all ages over a period of three years. The programme seeks to build a socio-cultural environment that is conducive for girls and women to manage menstruation with dignity and without any fear.

The initiative began with the mapping of existing knowledge, attitude and practices within target communities. It tapped local implementation partners and self-help group networks to disseminate the Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) at the school and community level. Sensitisation workshops and training of frontline heath and sanitation workers has helped achieve demonstration and scale.

Under this programme, women are provided access to clean absorbents and a basket of related products for safe and hygienic management of menstruation. This is done through the encouragement and aggregation of a retail model, involving the identification, training and mentoring of retail entrepreneurs, and triggering consumer-led demand of such products.

Women are provided with safe and convenient facilities equipped with soap and water, offering privacy for changing absorbents. Facilities are also provided for the safe and effective disposal of the waste products. Small-scale pilots on composting and incineration are also planned besides the exploration of a micro entrepreneur model for collection, transportation and treatment of waste.

Phase I of the MHM programme covers the states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, while phase II will extend the programme to the states of Telangana, Odisha, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram.

The Trusts’ partners under this programme are:

Technical: MH Alliance of India (MHAI), Sukhibhava Foundation, and Jatan Designs.
Implementation: CSPC (Gujarat), CINI (Jharkhand), CmF (Rajasthan), Kalike (Karnataka), UP PMU (UP), Himmotthan Society (Uttarakhand), and Anandwan (Maharashtra).
Product: Livinguard Technologies Pvt Ltd, Eco Femme, Aakar Innovations, Uger, Boondh and Saral Designs.