The Workshop on Menstruation and Hygiene was conducted by Ranjana Taskar with Anjana Mitra and Hazeka H Ginwala as attendees for the children of a corporate CSR group. The students consisted of both boys and girls, mostly between the age group of 17-21. Three academic year batches attended the workshop, with a total of 90+ students present.
The workshop began with the display of a handbook on menstruation, followed by a PPT presentation prepared by Ranjana Taskar. The presentation consisted of 7 slides that explained the menstruation cycle, the monthly calendar of a girl’s cycle, the emotional and physical changes that a girl experiences during menstruation, the usage of pads and proper disposal of pads. Ranjana Taskar also discussed at length all the social taboos surrounding menstruation and why they are irrelevant in today’s time.
In the second leg of the workshop, there was a question-answer session, and the children felt comfortable speaking on this platform. As this topic is such that they were unable to discuss openly at home, they poured their hearts out. Although only 15 minutes were dedicated to the questions, it lasted almost half an hour. Finally, a video was shown in the local Marathi language, which was a small story on the topic. This video summarized the entire workshop and was of 20 minutes. The workshop had a positive impact on the children, and was an eye-opener for the boys especially a boy aged 19 who did not know about menstruation at all.
The workshop conveyed a very strong message and definitely impacted the minds and touched their hearts.
