My Field Experience with Baala
At Baala we work on menstrual hygiene and three pillars of our project are-spreading awareness through menstrual hygiene workshops, distributing technically designed reusable sanitary napkins that can be used for up to two years and empowering women to access supplementary income through selling reusable sanitary napkins.
I joined Baala as an intern in September 2022 with an intent to learn more about menstrual hygiene, research, writing and more. I got to experience one of the workshops conducted by the Baala team in Badarpur, Delhi. It was about creating awareness about menstruation, menstrual hygiene, and encouraging the use of environmentally friendly products by the menstruators. My role was to observe and understand how the workshop takes place. My mentor, Parul and I boarded the metro to Badarpur, and started for an exciting day ahead. I was nostalgic the moment we boarded the metro for our visit.
When we entered the lanes of the community in Badarpur, it brought back memories from field experiences during my college time. I worked on issues relating to menstrual hygiene in urban slums of Delhi back in 2018–19. From my experience, we know it’s not always easy to have a free and flowing conversation about menstrual hygiene with communities at a large scale and even on an individual level. I was nervous to get back on the field after a year. At the same time, I was curious as to how the community will perceive our workshop, if they will engage with us or not, if they will be interested in the topic being discussed. But, I got all my answers after attending the workshop.
Reema Ji, was our point of contact for the workshop. She had invited and mobilized the women and girls of the community for the workshop. I realized how important the role of a local point of contact is in mobilizing the community. What I found really empowering and a kind of rebellious move was that we conducted our workshop in a temple and the fact that more than two hundred women came to discuss menstrual hygiene in a temple was quite impressive. Parul started the workshop with an ice-breaking word game to make the community comfortable and ease into the conversation. I loved how the conversation about menstruation started, from listening to what comes to their mind when we talk about periods, and seeing Parul explain what menstrual hygiene is, followed by a little hesitance in relation to other questions. One woman shared an interesting insight regarding a myth about periods, and other women listened to her attentively. And, the way she explained her reasoning was really clear, showcasing her confidence and clarity.
I loved the nature of the workshop, it was interactive and I understood the community’s perception.There was one moment when Parul asked when we are menstruating we lose a lot of blood, what is the major component of blood? They said iron and some said hemoglobin which are present in blood. Parul added that water is a major component of blood and suggested that they drink 7–8 glasses of water when they are menstruating.
Then there was discussion around how they deal with the pain during their periods. Some of them responded that they consume painkillers. She shared some suggestions to help minimize the pain like drinking water, using warm cloth and yoga exercises. And I demonstrated some yoga poses, which gathered laughs and giggles. I was really happy to see one girl from the community volunteer to demonstrate yoga poses. In case of excessive and unmanageable pain, women were encouraged to see a doctor.
This discussion was followed by two volunteers from Restless Development sharing their experiences about playing a very interesting game ‘Go-Nisha-Go.’ It’s a mobile application game designed for young adolescent girls to help them navigate their health, career, relationships and lifestyle. They encouraged the people present in the workshop to try this game and see if it helps them in any way.
I got to understand different experiences of girls in schools. Some of them shared that there have been discussions regarding menstruation in their school while some shared that they didn’t have any awareness sessions in their school. After the workshop some women and girls stayed back to clear their queries. It was inspiring to listen to Reena Ji and the way she dedicatedly works for her community. We ended our day by going to a beautiful Durga Pooja Pandal in their locality.
It was a great field experience. No doubt there are efforts being taken to eliminate period poverty and period illiteracy but the journey is still going to be a long and arduous one. Periods are still considered just a ‘woman’s issue.’ There’s a notion that it’s not appropriate to talk about periods openly and especially with men. In our workshop we saw more than two hundred women coming together to attend this workshop which showcases that people are willing to learn if a proper environment is created for the discourse. We can’t follow a one size fits all approach with everyone, we need to observe the needs of the community and mold our workshops in a way which ensures maximum impact in terms of learning for the people. This was one of those workshops where our efforts were received with openness and enthusiasm. And, I hope to see a day where periods are considered as natural a process as breathing. Till then, we’ll keep making the efforts which help us build this gap in whatever little way possible.
About the Author
Vanshika means flute and no doubt I am surviving on music. Over the last few years I have become less rigid with the idea of who I thought I was and started giving myself a chance to explore more. My journey has just started and I’m curious to see what all I’ll get to experience along the way. My areas of interest are diverse but my favourite hobbies are sleeping and having good food.
