Sustainable Health Empowerment (SHE)
The event on “ The HEALTHY Hygiene PERIOD” was conducted by theIEEE RIT WIE Affinity Group in collaboration with “Green the Red” campaign as a part of the Sustainable Health Empowerment Programme.The event was conducted on 13th September 2017 in the ESB Seminar Hall -2, MSRIT with a huge turnover of female students from all the departments.
The event was conducted with the aim of spreading awareness on sustainable menstrual hygiene practices and management solutions.
The event consisted of talks and sessions by notable speakers:
- Dr Thavamani an MBBS, DGO, MBA, PhD, Consultant and Executive Health Administrator at Samnan Medical Center Sharjah, UAE.
- Dr Meenakshi Bharath, a Gynaecologist and Fertility specialist but she’s also a green campaigner and an advocate for Clean India.
- Mrs Shantha Natarajan who has an MBA in marketing and has worked as a marketing executive in NOUS Infosystems.
- Mrs Sindhu Naik who has worked in the software field for more than a decade in the early 80s and 90s with companies like TCS, Citicorp both in India and overseas.
- Mrs Smita Kulkarni a techie turned graphic designer turned environmental activist. Her work experience includes 8 years as a software professional in General Electric, 8 years as a Graphic Design Consultant and 5 years of teaching at Design Colleges latest at St. Joseph’s. She is one of the founding members of Bangalore Eco Team(BeT) that is a congregation of city-wide volunteers working on Solid Waste Management initiatives.
The event started with an Address by Dr. Annapurna P Patil from CSE dept who is also the IEEE RIT WIE advisor, followed by the felicitation of the guest speakers.
Dr. Thavamani started off with the session by asking the young girls about the difficulties they face during their menstrual cycle leading to a general discussion about the problems commonly faced by women during their menstrual cycle concentrating more on the hygiene related issues.
Dr. Meenakshi introduced them to the alternatives to the disposable sanitary napkins, their side effects, effects on environement. All the speakers spoke about the pros of the resuable napkins and shared their experiences.
Mrs Shantha Natarajan spoke about the sustainable mentruation and spoke about the availability of these products in the market.These products included the menstrual cup and the washable cloth pads.
Mrs Smita Kulkarni and Mrs Sindhu Naik further shared about the benefits of switching to the sustainable practise ,especially concerning the environmental aspects and also made time to clarify the doubts of the students regarding the safety of these alternative products.This was followed by an interactive session where students interacted with each of the speakers and got queries answered.
The event ended with thanks giving speech by Dr. Annapurna Ma’am, WIE Advisor of IEEE RIT SB.