Mumbai: Every teenage girl in India has gone through the embarrassment of hiding sanitary pads in black polythene or a thick paper bag at least once in her life. They are not even allowed to talk about menstruation in open and this is the reason that 88% of girls who menstruate end up using unsafe materials.
Working towards breaking the existing menstruation taboo in the country is a 22-year-old research associate - Deane de Menezes.
The young girl has started a unique project by the name Red is the New Green which aims at spreading hygienic practices at the time of menstruation.
For this, Deane has installed a number of sanitary napkin dispensers in various schools in Mumbai.
Not only this, concerned with the problems of waste generated, she has also installed incinerators, which is a waste treatment apparatus.
CRISIL, an international analytical company, is funding the project.
On taking such an initiative, she said, “We want girls to be non-apologetic about [their periods] and we plan to make pouches available for the girls to keep their pads safely and walk to the loo with it, head held high."
"We want to help them open up and talk about periods, make their own views about it instead of having views and biases imposed on them," she added.
Her next aim is to find sponsors for her project.
