Lucknow’s Amit Saxena has educated more than 60 thousand women about menstrual hygiene. He distributes free sanitary pads in schools and villages and is known as the Pad Man of Lucknow.
Lucknow: There is serious lack of education on the topics of menstruation in villages and other remote areas. Still a sort of stigma is attached to the discussions of menstrual hygiene. In attempts to educate more people about an important concern as this, Amit Saxena carries sanitary pads in his bag and visits villages to inform more people about the importance of proper hygiene.
Resigning from the position of a principal
Amit did a PhD in Sociology and worked as a headmaster in a local college for seven years. He found his job dissatisfying because it prevented him from doing any kind of social work. In 2010, he left his job and formed a non-profit organization under the name ‘Srijan Foundation’. During this time, the health of his parents started deteriorating so he moved back to Lucknow.
In 2015, he began another initiative called Himmat Project. He informed men and women about menstrual hygiene and observed the hesitancy of people to engage with the topic.
Himmat Abhiyan
Amit found it difficult to interact with more people as they would run away after being ashamed of hearing about the topics he wanted to discuss. Women would avoid conversations and would feel uncomfortable to discuss about it openly.
Amit realized that the first aim of his initiative must be to remove the stigma attached to the discussions of menstruation. Education cannot be attained at the behest of fear of shame.
Contacting bigger companies
In eight years, Amit has distributed free sanitary pads to thousands of women from villages. He has gained a lot of popularity for his social work. Reading articles about Amit’s social work, the owner of the company Nine, established contact with him and invited him for a meeting. After that, Amit could expand his area of work, and started distributing sanitary pads in schools as well.
Free items with sanitary pads
Amit launched his own brand named ‘Himmat’ dismantling quotes like ‘Boys don’t cry’ and replacing them with ‘Don’t call yourself a man if you can’t feel the pain’.
Amit distributes his sanitary pad packets with a free shampoo in them. He is aware that women in villages still follow old practices like not taking a bath during menstruation. Such practices can cause serious health issues, and Amit wants to make people aware about the same. Free items with his products attract more women which helps him expand his awareness programs.
Amit’s NGO also works to provide free food and free education to people in need.
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