Boondh Is Spreading Menstrual Advocacy, One Drop At A Time

Highlights

Boondh is a hybrid organisation that works on Sustainable Products, Menstrual Literacy, Advocacy, Policy and Programming.

It offers a range of menstrual cups and cloth pads while also hosting workshops or capacity-building programs with varied stakeholders.

Bharti Kannan with co-founder Sonal Jain aim to address, challenge and subvert systemic exclusions, violence, denial of rights with respect to information and healthcare and WASH, surrounding menstruation in India through their initiatives.

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When it comes to India, one can never say that there is enough menstrual literacy and awareness because of the poverty and illiteracy that exists among the population. Boondh is a hybrid enterprise started by Bharti Kannan who noticed a gaping hole in menstruation-related interventions, activism and advocacy. Co-founder Sonal Jain came on board when they and Bharti met.

Today, after five years Boondh is seven members strong and like they say, they are working hard to make menstruation a ‘non-issue’ in the country. They work on sustainable products, menstrual literacy, advocacy, policy and programming. Boondh offers a range of menstrual cups and cloth pads while also hosting workshops or capacity-building programs with varied stakeholders.

Bharti Kannan, strives to be a conscientious entrepreneur hoping to bring about positive outcomes along the themes of gender, health and environment. She was awarded the Priyadharshini Achievers Award 2021 by the Karnataka Mahila Congress for her achievements and contributions in the Menstrual Health and Hygiene Sector; she was also selected to participate in the Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering for Development symposium on the theme “WASHing away inequalities”, co-hosted by Fomento Mexicano in Mexico City, 2019. Bharti was also a Representative, Women’s Major Group (WMG) at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 2019), Nairobi, sponsored by Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

From building menstrual life skills to advocating for sustainable period products to raising awareness about menstrual disorders – Boondh’s outreach work is carried on through various programs, campaigns and workshops, each designed and contextualized to suit the specific audience group. “We believe strongly in the power of safe, non-judgemental spaces, experience sharing and active listening, and strive to realise these tenets”, say the founders.

Sonal Jain is not only a Menstrual Health Advocate and lives with PCOS & PMDD. They have been an MHH (Menstrual Health & Hygiene) facilitator since 2013. Their previous work includes facilitating teams for World Merit UK in the space of environmental sustainability and education. Their everyday activities include empowering conversations and living mindfully. And that is why the values and mission of Boondh resonates with them.

Mission and Vision

Boondh is also very Intersectional Feminist in a way that is conscientious of how caste, gender, capital, religion, etc interplay in everyday menstrual experiences and choices.

They are eco-conscious towards urging for sustainable ways of program delivery and in turn WASH infrastructure development. Their campaigns include advocating for sustainable menstruation methods by switching, which are also available on their website to shop from. Through their outreach programs they have sponsored cups for economically under privileged menstruators in Leh Ladakh to fisherwomen and govt. health workers in Kerala in the south, domestic helpers in Kanpur and menstruators in West Bengal, Hyderabad and Uttarakhand.

Advocacy through art

Among other programs, The Crimson Wave is a non-profit initiative in menstrual art by Boondh. Titled after a common euphemism used to describe one’s period, this project aims to bring the dialogue on menstruation to the mainstream.

The central idea of the project is to curate artwork about periods, myths about menstruation and different representations of female biology from a diverse range of artists across the world. It is India’s first traveling menstrual art exhibition. Exhibited in a different city each year leading up to Menstrual Hygiene Day, TCW has traveled to Chennai, Bangalore Goa and Delhi so far, and went online for its 2020 edition.

Erythrean, a sub-project of The Crimson Wave, features artworks created through the medium of menstrual blood. “We’re always taking in new submissions so if you have a story to tell through your art, you can submit it at our website”.

Over the years, Boondh has worked with corporate and development sector organizations alike, building menstrual interventions to impart menstrual life skills, advance menstrual literacy, raise awareness about alternative menstrual product options as well as improve menstruation-related organisational policy and infrastructure.

“For beneficiaries who opt for sustainable menstrual products, we also integrate a supply chain of Boondh Menstrual Cups and Boondh Cloth pads”, says Sonal.

Boondh also conducts workshops for campus youths and aspiring change makers, green period educator program for workplaces that spark conversations on sustainable menstruation and menstrual health by creating a menstruator friendly environment.

Their Resource Toolkit Reporting Guidelines is consciously designed to make discourse about menstruation more representative, accurate and holistics for media persons and is a solid starting point towards enabling refined discussions and reportage surrounding menstruation. Boondh’s development of Minimum Standards in Prisons for Menstrual Hygiene along with this toolkit has been recognized by the Karnataka Mahila Congress with the Priyadarshini Award for achievements in the Menstrual Health and Hygiene Space.

“Our mission keeps the menstruator at the centre of the ecosystem, attempts to be participatory in seeking menstruator choices, decisions and approaches to addressing change through an intersectional feminist approach”, they say.

Boondh is a recipient of a grant for menstrual advocacy to the tune of 37000 GBP from Amplify Change through a fiscal sponsor. Boondh represented the Women’s Major Groups (WMG) as part of the Major Groups in the United Nations Environment Assembly held in Nairobi in 2019. It was also among 3 selected social enterprises to exhibit its work and impact as part of the Laureate Global Fellowship in DC, USA in 2018.

Today, what Boondh is doing may just be a drop in the ocean but remember, it is such drops that maketh the ocean.

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I was walking down the main road in a tier 3 city along with my friend when two men on a bike rushed against us, turned again and almost pulled my friend’s dupatta — though we managed to save her, we couldn’t get a hold of those men. We froze for almost a minute before grasping everything that happened with us.

It’s been a decade since that incident, and I still look out for bikes and stay aware while walking such roads.

My cousin had to board an overcrowded bus once only to face off a stinking drunk man who was ‘just’ trying to tell her how beautiful she was. Apparently, she almost stopped using public buses.

My colleague always books two adjacent seats in shared autos because she has met a lot of men who, unfortunately, have not been taught how to adjust in their own seat and not to ‘almost’ fall on other women’s lap.

That was neither the first time nor the last time when such an incident happened with my friend, cousin or colleague.

I was in standard seven, eight or nine — I do not remember exactly — a middle-aged man groped me while I was walking to my school. And before I could react, shout and or even notice his face again, he was already out of my sight. That was one of the longest ten minutes walks I’ve ever had.

From blank calls to abusive calls, creepy stares, random terrible gropings, unwanted chases, etc.; the list is long and haunting.

And, it’s not only me who has experienced it. There is a minimum of hundreds of such incidents happening every day — while you may generalise the level of insolence, one can never justify the trauma it brings!

The sad part is that almost 99% of cases of sexual assaults go unreported — sad and dark, isn’t it?

sexual abuse india data — Source: Livemint

And when I say sexual abuse, it is not limited to what you are trying to shred off. Physical abuse, mental abuse, verbal abuse, digital abuse, etc. are just the various forms of the torments that it brings.

Where and what is the problem they ask. Is it the mentality or rage or a compulsive mechanism to overpower another’s will or just an amusement? The reason is never annotated, never justified.

The only justification I’ve ever got is the over-liberation of femininity in the name of equality!!

Of course, they sound accurate. How can we compete against the species who have the god-given power to make us pregnant and ensure that the kids turn out to be straight! How can we have the audacity to walk in that sacred place where they go every day to earn the currency and be better than them!

Isn’t that too hard and cruel, I ask ladies! Every deed of theirs is a reminder to us — that we must not use our basic rights and sit back under the boundaries that they call house.

Sometimes, I feel that I, or maybe a lot of women, like me have passed that very stage of toleration, have crossed their threshold and have fought enough to question the people and society they belong to — maybe, we now know, or rather, have accepted that ‘this’ is not going to change — no matter how hard we fight or raise our voice.

This whole ‘do not question my patriarchal rights or else I’d harm your self-esteem and dignity’ have reached a new level — a level of fake male ego, the art of hiding inability under the trousers and the unstoppable show-off of muscles.

So yes, while I hold placards and roam around the city, a part of me knows that it’s not possible to change 1.38 billion minds against the same perception — it’s not possible to convince them that we live in a metropolitan era which does not distinguish between gender, caste, creed and sexuality.

And while I move on to document another horrific experience, I challenge every woman out there to tell our readers if she has not been abused at any age, place or time.
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