Women and Girl Child Hygiene Gets a Boost with Sanitease

MUMBAI:
Aquakraft Projects Pvt. ltd. In association with the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, GOI, today launched Sanitease under its unique social development activity Swachhagraha.
Inaugurated by Amruta Fadnavis Sanitease is a personal hygiene initiative dedicated to the women of India. Female health and hygiene is a much discussed and debated topic in the country and Sanitease is the only initiative, which will work inclusively across all stakeholders towards menstrual health of women. Sanitease is another initiative under Swachhagraha in support of Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s clarion call of “Swachhta Hi Sewa”,
The main objective of Sanitease is to democratize Personal Hygiene for women across the country and more specifically in the hinterland. Having said that the principle focus would be girl child and in this regard the 1st phase of intervention will be across schools in urban & rural areas. Through Sanitease, Swachhagraha would like to reach out to several rural schools at the secondary level and collect data of the number of female students and approximate the requirement of sanitary napkins for them per month. Once the demand is established and validated the same will be posted in a digital platform for pre-qualified donors across Corporates, Individuals and the Indian Diaspora to fund the same.
Speaking at the launch Amruta Fadnavis, said “We need a lot of initiatives like Swachhagraha and I personally congratulate “SwachhShree” Subramanya Kusnur for this unique and well thought initiative that enables sanitation and hygiene for women, particularly girl child. Safe Sanitation & Hygiene increases the quality of life and dramatically reduces Public Health expenditure, which according to World Bank has a very positive impact on our GDP. Such initiatives not only facilitate health & well being but also help erase the social and economic stigma’s & empowering the women folk with honor & pride. I was amazed at the concept of Swachh Bandhu’s & Swachh Bhagini’s enabling the last mile and happy to see men, as Swachh Bandhu’s involved in Menstrual Hygiene Advocacy. This to my mind is a game changer and will have a very progressive impact on Sanitation & Hygiene as a whole.”
Adding in “SwachhShree” Subramanya Kusnur, architect of Swachhagraha and Chairman & CEO of Aquakraft Projects Pvt. Ltd. said Sanitease is an initiative towards the health and welfare of women and their menstrual health under Swachhagraha “Swachh is an acronym for Sanitation &Water for Community Health &Hygiene. Agraha is an invitation to all stakeholders across Volunteers, Donors, Non Profits, NGOs, Social Financial Institutions, Corporates, Multilateral Agencies, Elected representatives such as Corporators /MLAs / MPs /Govt., & Institutional Stakeholders, Academia to join a Movement For Clean & Green India. The unique feature of Sanitease is that it enables the last mile connectivity through Swachh Bandhus and Swachh Bhaginis who are vocationally trained in Swachh. They provide the critical and missing link between the community, administration and donors. We are very honored & highly grateful to Amruta Fadnavisiji for having launched Sanitease and dedicated the first batch of 27 Swachh Bandhu’s & Swachh Bhagini’s to the nations on the auspices of Gandhi Jayanti. We are also very happy and pleased to hear that Swachhagraha is our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modiji’s message to the nation on this Gandhi Jayanti, which is directly congruent to our initiative for a Clean Green Healthy & New India. ”
“ Micro level planning is very essential and we association with Aquakraft under the Swachhagraha initiative will be creating a state wide blue print for Maharashtra State to proliferate Swachh in general and Women Hygiene in particular. We are very grateful to Amruta Fadnavisji for her time and inspiring the first batch Swachh Bandhu’s & Swachh Bhagini’s. Earlier in the day we had a Swachhagraha march, which had a participation of more than 1200 students from NSS, R D National College & Swachh Bandhu’s, & Swachh Bhagini’s who pledged their support to Honble Prime Minsters call of “Swachhta Hi Sewa” commented Mrs Sandhya Deotale – State Director NYKS, Minsitry of Youth Affairs & Sports GOI.
Jacob Ingill Ra, Co-Chair of APPDSA – Asia Pacific Peace Development & Service Alliance, a consortium of UN, USAID, US Peace Corps, FK Norway and other multilateral agencies, who had come down specifically from Korea, endorsed Swachhagraha as a emerging and effective model of peace & development. “Water, Sanitation, Nutrition based livelihood opportunities will redefine the tools of peace and development and we are going to promote the Swachhagraha model far and wide through our offices and multi lateral agency partners globally.”
Pravin Nikam, founder of NGO Roshni & Asia’s Regional Representative of Commonwealth Youth Council was declared as the Social Ambassador of Sanitease. Pravin Nikam is the National Youth Awardee and has relentlessly proliferated advocacy of Menstrual Hygiene across the strata. Speaking on the occasion he said, “ I am highly privileged with the honor Subramanya Sir has bestowed on me and will do everything to achieve the vision of Swachhagraha at large.”
Yeshwant Mankhedkar, District Youth Coordinator, NYKS, stated “There are 385 Blocks in Maharashtra and we will have over 750 Swachh Bandhu’s & Swachh Bhagini’s under Swachhagraha enabling the Prime Minister’s vision of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and taking Sanitease to the grassroots and effecting positive change ”
Swachhagraha is a social development initiative of Aquakraft Projects Pvt Ltd., with an objective to initiate a movement that pervades one and all, making the basic amenities of life such as water, sanitation, hygiene accessible and available, with the motto to provide a better standard of living in the long run. Swachhagraha is inspired by our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and New India.