September 6th - 9th, Asifabad District.
I narrate my experience of working with adolescent girls of Asifabad District, Telangana. I spent three hours each on three consecutive evenings taking various sessions on MHM with 10th, 11th and 12th class girls of the prestigious Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) - Adilabad.
A little about why JNV stands out:
They had about 25 reasons on what they liked about being a girl. But, a whopping 50 reasons on what they disliked! I have done this exercise with elder women and urban women and many other groups, but nowhere have i got 50 reasons! This is actually a good indicator. It shows high self-awareness and it gives us future avenues of work with them!
I narrate my experience of working with adolescent girls of Asifabad District, Telangana. I spent three hours each on three consecutive evenings taking various sessions on MHM with 10th, 11th and 12th class girls of the prestigious Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) - Adilabad.
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| The one on my left painted this overnight when i announced a last-day party! |
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A little about why JNV stands out:
The Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme which began as a unique experiment is today unparalleled in the annals of School Education in India and elsewhere. Its significance lies in the selection of talented rural children as the target group and the attempt to provide them quality education comparable to the best in a residential school system.
The JNV Adilabad is located in Sirpur Kagaznagar of Asifabad district and caters to the erstwhile Adilabad district (Adilabad, Nirmal, Asifabad, Mancherial). Only 80 students are selected for the 6th class entrance out of a whopping 10,000 + registrations. The students represent 150 villages across 52 mandals of erstwhile Adilabad District. The school also ensures and maintains a min. 33% admission of girl students. At present, there are 26 girls from X std., 9 from XI std., and 20 from XII std.,. A total of 55 girls participated in the session on 'Being a Girl' across three days. The sessions were held from 5 PM to 7 PM on day 1 and 2 and from 8 AM to 9:30 PM on day 3.
Video from Commissioner, PR&RD:
I was of course super excited to just take these sessions, but my excitement grew manifold when my commissioner ma'am agreed to send a video of hers for the girls!! We tried a video call but didn't work due to bad signal! So, most of my girls aim to be IAS officers. Imagine their glee when they got a special video from a senior IAS woman officer talking about menstruation! OMG! You will witness in this video the literal pin-drop silence while listening to ma'am speak which would otherwise take soo much energy to calm them!
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| Smt.Neetu Kumari Prasad, IAS, Commissioner PR&RD briefing girls about menstrual hygiene |
A little about my Sessions:
I like testing the existing material on MHM, see what works and what doesn't and create a separate module accordingly. Since JNV was a big deal and i was already informed that my audience is highly meritorious, i decided to bring in Gender. I mixed modules from UNICEF, WaterAid, Boondh and my TISS course material. And i couldn't be any happier based on the results. Instead of the mundane "MHM Awareness Session", i called it " Being A Girl" and the curiosity began that very moment i announced it!
The Session is titled 'Being A Girl' as it revolves around different aspects of being a girl. Though WASH perspective would want to directly discuss menstrual hygiene, the intersectionality cannot be ignored. Most girls feel impure or ugly or feel less confident due to their periods. They believe they need to behave in a limited atmosphere due to menstruation and often end up in huge pain and discomfort because of infections that they are too shy to discuss. Hence, it is imperative to understand this psyche and address the issue in whole. Empowerment, in its true sense, means the ability to choose, make informed decisions. And through this session, we can say, these girls are empowered.
Pre and Post Evaluation:
Now, i would not claim empowerment had i not seen in first hand. I wish all of you could interact with my girls and see it for yourself. But, since that is not possible, i will show you the results of pre and post-evaluation. I made a list of 10 statements and asked them to rank themselves on a scale of 1 (less) -5 (more). I also included a question on how much they thought they bled during menstruation. And here are the results!
This is what they thought before and after session. The table shows the average score. Most of them did not like being born as a girl, were highly uncomfortable about periods, dint know how much they were bleeding and dint even know how many holes they had down there! I even have recorded responses of girls saying 1 and 4 as the number of body orifices! This table shows a direct co-relation between beauty, confidence and increased menstruation. hence, i say, my girls are now empowered! They are confident to ask the right questions, seek answers without shame, and spread this knowledge!
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Statement/Question
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Pre-Session
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Post-Session
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I like Being a Girl.
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2.78
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4.75
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I am a Beautiful Person.
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3.51
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4.89
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I'm aware of the Female Reproductive System.
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2.67
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4.64
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I observe my private areas for hygiene reasons.
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4.31
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4.96
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I'm comfortable in discussing menstruation openly.
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2.16
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4.58
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Is Menstrual Blood pure?
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3.65
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5.00
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How much do you bleed during periods?
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(320 ml)
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(60 ml)
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How many body orifices down there?
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2 holes
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3 holes
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I make informed choices about my periods.
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2.05
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4.56
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I am a confident person.
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3.18
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5.00
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So, what were these sessions, you ask? As i said earlier, i mixed around a lot of modules, and this is my perfect module at the moment and here's why:
- Most girls are already highly uncomfortable about menstruation and when we go to take sessions exclusively on that, they force themselves throughout the session.
- There will always be a group that is highly active in these sessions and a group that is highly not! Our goal should to include the latter as well. And Self-Awareness activities includes every person.
- These sessions are meant for small groups. Not more than 50! I had 55 girls and it was so diificult to match their energy and take a session for 3 hours!
- The first activity is about "What do you like as a girl" and "what don't you like as a girl". Every girl gets a chance to participate and naturally many say that they dont like periods. And we pick periods as a topic from this session and take it further very naturally! Trust me, this helps soo much!
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| Dislike Chart - 1 |
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| Dislike chart - 2 |
So, here's my perfect Session on MHM for adolescent girls of residential schools:
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Time
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Activity Name
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Source
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30 mins
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Introduction and setting safe space
- Name of the group - What qualities are expected from the new person joining this group - defining safe space - pre evaluation |
She Creates Change Learning Lab
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1 hour
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What I Like about Myself
- 2 volunteers, each writing the pointers received on what they like about being a girl and what they don’t. - Every participant gets a chance and they alternatively mention what they like and don’t like - A softball can be used to pass around during session |
2014, UNICEF - Peer Educators Activity Guidebook
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One common thing that most girls say they don’t like about themselves is menstruating. Taking this as a lead, the next session will start talking about menstruation
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45 mins
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Understanding Self within the framework of Gender
- what is beautiful, who decides - are we beautiful, Am I beautiful |
2014, UNICEF - Peer Educators Activity Guidebook
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15 mins
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Sex and Gender
- divide the board into male and female and ask participants to describe characteristics and start writing them. - At the end, just change the headings, reverse them and strike one by one to realize what is biological and what is a social construct. |
TISS - Social Work Course
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5 mins
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Period pride (?)
- positive examples - IPS officer, PADman, marathon runner, olympian |
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20 mins
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Blood as the elixir of life
- Also, using this exercise to realize that its different for all of us. Menstruation is very personal to women and though two women sync, it is not necessary for them to experience it in the same way. |
Boondh Module
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30 mins
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Menstruation as a biological phenomena
- The session time depends based on the participants background. Since my participants were bio students, it dint take long and instead I ended up learning more about biology! |
Boondh Module
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15 mins
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Myths - True or False
This document has a table of 19 myths sourced from the country. Just read them out loud - one by one and let the audience say true or false and then explore it further. Confuse them until they are sure and they know why |
Water Aid MHM Resource Booklet
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30 mins
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Introduction to Sanitation and Hygiene
- A very interactive session on how to keep themselves clean after peeing, pooing and during bleeding - There are going to be many questions on their personal problems, many of them have cysts, advise them to see a doctor |
Boondh Module
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15 mins
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Menstrual Materials
- See what is their awareness on different types and kinds of menstrual material - a little history on the evolution of these products - pros and cons of using each one |
I used the following items for this session:
Cloth pads by Naari and UCB Cups by Boondh Commercial pads by stayfree |
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5 mins
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Post evaluation and feedback
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10 mins
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Letters to themselves
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Towards the end, the girls performed a skit, presented an art, recited a poem and have also written beautiful letters to themselves. The letters had reminders on what they learnt and what they want to be reminded of. These letters would be posted to the girls towards the end of academic year.
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| They performed a wonderful skit on what they'll do after the session! blew my mind! |
Anju from Naari Foundation had come forward and distributed UCB cloth pad sets. Each girl received a cloth pad set which has 5 cloth pads. This was distributed after introducing the girls to hygiene practices and different kinds of menstrual products.
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| Happy us with cloth pads from UCB! |
Special Thanks:
- To the Hon'ble Principal for the genuine interest in promoting girls well-being and education.
- To Mr.Prashanth for creating this opportunity of engagement.
- To Anju Arora for arranging the amazing cloth pad sets
Super Special Thanks:
- To my 55 girls who make me so proud of myself, of them and give me soo much push to be better everyday!
Resources Link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1E9YHE1yjB0ccpVszPaWsxOU0ZylkroAT
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