Menstruation. A normal biological process for a woman to experience after the age of puberty.
Menstruation, also commonly called a “period,” is often seen as a taboo topic in our society even today. Although it is not as misunderstood as it was in ancient times, whenever a woman menstruates, she is told to hide it from the other members of her own family, just for the sake of keeping the taboo tradition alive.
This is where we stand and take tiny but meaningful steps towards the betterment of the people.
At Kashmiriyat Foundation, our mission is to make as many people as possible aware of and educate them about menstruation and menstrual health and hygiene. This means we care about women and their health.
To spread awareness, we have regular sessions with women, especially from unprivileged areas, to help them understand how normal this cycle of bleeding is and should be.
The crowd isn’t always the most enduring, but that is where we, along with the help and support of the founder, try to mould ourselves to adhere to the crowd and try to reach as many people as we possibly can.
Even if only one person becomes aware in the crowd, it is the small but firm win we have always aimed for since the beginning and will continue to aim for into the near future.
This organization, as a whole, is a joint effort of many people, both upfront and behind the scenes, working night and day to help improve society, one day at a time.
Periods are just normal. Bleeding is part of being alive.
But for some reason, people still treat it like a dirty secret. It’s honestly heartbreaking. Right now, a young girl is hiding a pad up her sleeve, terrified that her dad or brother might see it.
She’s left totally alone when she should feel the safest.
This silence isn’t just awkward. It actually makes people sick. Look at the numbers right here at home:
Only 74.5% of women can even get clean pads or cloth.
The rest? They have to risk painful, dangerous infections.
Go into tribal areas, and it’s way worse. Ninety-six percent of young girls can’t handle their periods safely. They are trapped by deep poverty, living without even a basic tap of running water.
Sure, the government has schemes to pass out cheap pads like “Freedays” in villages. And yes, the Supreme Court ruled that menstrual health is a basic right. But a law on a piece of paper changes absolutely nothing for daily survival on the ground.
That’s why we started the Kashmiriyat Foundation. We refuse to just sit back.
Every single woman has a right to her health, her safety, and her pride.
The only way to fix this mess is to talk about it out loud. When we hide the facts, girls use unsafe materials, drop out of school, or just suffer in silence.
Getting cheap pads into their hands changes everything:
- It brings back their confidence.
- It keeps them from missing school.
- It stops them from losing their income.
So, our team goes straight to the ground. We sit face-to-face with women in rural areas. We don’t just drop off supplies and run. We talk openly about hygiene and smash the stigma right out in the open.
It is brutal work. People don’t always welcome us. Mindsets don’t change overnight.
But we don’t give up. If we hit a wall, we change how we talk until we finally connect. Saving even one girl from infection and shame is a massive victory for us.
Our team is working day and night, on the streets and behind the scenes. We are replacing old myths with facts. Getting society to understand this is an exhausting fight, but we are making it happen.
One conversation at a time.
— Written by Isha