Umeed by Swabhimaan: Menstruation and the gaps in Menstrual Health Management

Ms. Sameedha Bhat has been associated with Paddling Foundation, an organization approaching menstruation in a gender-inclusive way. The organisation has been educating and emancipating menstruators from the fears and stigmas around menstruation. During the pandemic, Ms. Bhat has participated in a number of initiatives, where she taught and provided menstruators with menstrual hygiene products. She also conducted interviews with trans-men to better understand their perspectives on menstruation and have a more gender-inclusive discourse about it. In this episode, Ms. Bhat talks about her journey with the foundation. She explains how her personal experiences led her to work towards making menstruation a more accessible and acceptable topic to talk about. This episode brings to you the challenges faced by menstruators across different gender dimensions, the stories of their struggles, the physical and psychological effects of it, and the novel approaches of the foundation in uprooting these issues.