We have celebrated “International women’s day” with #railwaypolicemumbai by organizing a workshop “Lyvefresh ANANDA” on Menstrual hygiene Management & Sanitary waste management for female officers of Railway Police Mumbai. Training was provided by Nikita Gala – Training Director – Lyvefresh ANANDA.

We highly appreciate the support of The Commissioner Of Railway Police Mumbai Mr. Quaiser Khalid IPS for giving us an opportunity to do this workshop during their celebration of International women’s day at their headquarters located at #ghatkopar Mr. Shahaji Nikkam

The event was on 6th, 7th & 8th March 2022 with support of #hdfcbank with many more such workshops.

The workshops was attended by more than 125 Railway Police female officers and was highly appreciated by all. This was first of its kind workshop organized for them. This workshop brought some light to their knowledge on Menstrual hygiene management with topics like

• Importance of menstrual hygiene ?
• Why stop using sanitary pads / tampons ?
• Disadvantages of using pads / tampons ?
• Why shift to eco friendly alternative ? i.e Menstrual Cup
• Health benefits of using Menstrual Cup ?
• How do you save nature ?
• 98% saving on cost by using Menstrual Cup ?
• What is Menstrual Cup ?
• How to use Menstrual Cup ?
• How to store and care menstrual cup ?
• Sizes of Menstrual Cup ? How to choose yours ?
• Is menstrual cup safe ?

And much more….

Additional support during the event given to us by Mrs. Karuna Shelke & Mrs. Archana Shrisagar from railway police department which was highly appreciated by our team and also we look forward for their support during future events we would organize for railway police department across Mumbai.

The problem is “Awareness” even if there is a solution

The issue in India is lack of awareness regarding menstrual hygiene management among females even if there is variety of solutions to the problems.

Need to shift the focus! With an eco-friendly alternative to save nature and empower females with better health practice.

Understanding about the menstruation issues and sanitary waste which is harming the nature, there is a urgent need to shift the focus on eco-friendly alternative of Pads or Tampons. There are thousands of NGO’s / social groups working for creating the awareness across India, but due to the size of female population in the country and demographics it is difficult to solve the problem in short period of time. There are also lot of government initiative by central and state government departments to support the 80% of female population in rural areas and tribal areas by giving FREE sanitary pads and creating awareness about better menstrual hygiene practice.

Now to support these government initiatives for creating better menstrual hygiene practice and taking 1 step ahead, Mr. Jigar K. Parekh – CEO & Co-founder along with Mrs Nikita Gala Parekh – CFO & Co-founder of Abcd Multiventures – Mumbai have initiated with “Lyvefresh ANANDA” – a series of FREE workshops / training program on menstrual hygiene management and sanitary waste management. This free program will be conducted at various places like corporate / social groups / government departments (like railway / police / municipal corporations / etc.) / schools / rural and tribal areas / etc. As on date, Mumbai Police, Railway Police (Mumbai) has already extended their support for organizing the training program for their respective staff. There are also few NGO’s and social groups who have supported this noble cause by helping in organizing this program at rural areas / slums among their network.

These training programs will mainly focus on training regarding how you can save the nature from sanitary waste? What is the importance of menstrual hygiene?, Why stop using pads or tampons? What are the health disadvantages of using disposable pads?, Why to use menstrual cup (an eco-friendly alternative)?, What are the life changing benefits of using menstrual cup?, How to use and care your menstrual cup?, etc.

Lets know some facts about menstruation problems in India:

• 50 % of the world population  is women , and they bleed, on an average 3000 days in their life cycle
• Women are the worst sufferers due to lack of sanitation facilities in India.
• According to studies, 30% marginalized women are physically and sexually assaulted to access public toilet while 70% of teenage girls in Delhi slums experience humiliation every day . 
• Due to the shortage of toilet facilities, 23% of adolescent girls drop out from schools.
• Because of Menses , I and you are on earth but still there is social taboo and discrimination pertaining to menstruation.
• India’s menstrual waste is estimated at 1,13,000 tonnes annually. (Outlook2018)
• In India only 12% of 355 million(35,50,00,000) women of menstruating age can afford disposable sanitary napkins. But conservatively, these 42.6 million women will throw 21.3 billion sanitary napkins to landfill in their lives (Hindu new paper-2018)
• National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16, say 57.6% of Indian women use sanitary napkins
• Plastic used  in pads takes about 500 years to decompose. In fact bio degradable options do contain 20 % of toxic plastic and jell content
• There is no specific Goal or Indicator for MHM but Menstruation Matters SDG Goal 3,4,6,8 & 12
• India is committed to cut emissions to net zero by 2070 with global COP26 summit ( Nov 2021).