by Shillpi A Singh

Diwali, the festival of lights, is around the corner. It is the season of exchanging gifts and spreading love and light in the lives of our near and dear ones. How about doing it differently this time? And instead, go about spreading kindness. 

If that’s what you want to do this festive season, then look no further. The members of a citizen’s collective called PadSquad, who have been working with other PadSquadders (volunteers) to make menstrual products accessible to underprivileged women across the length and breadth of the country since last five months, have a cracker of an idea to spread happiness this Diwali, and would love to have you aboard their campaign. 

The members of the collective include film producer and social activist Monica Raheja, actors Niiya Kumar and Gillian Pinto, social entrepreneur Mayuri Joshi Dhavale, filmmakers Surya Balakrishnan and Devashish Makhija, actor, poet and social activist Taranjit Kaur, and film producer Chhitra Subramaniam. 

So while we are busy decking up our homes for the festival of lights, Taranjit has been doing rounds of the slum pockets in Mumbai on her scooter, distributing menstrual cups to underprivileged women, with Monica and Chhitra busy ‘cupverting’ women across the city. Another co-founder of the collective, Surya, will be joining the cup distribution drive soon. 

The movement that started on June 1 this year with the distribution of sanitary pads, soon moved to bio-degradable pads, then reusable ones and finally, these menstrual cups. Introducing these is no mean feat, but the Team PadSquad is constantly at it. “It will be a long-drawn process because there are many inhibitions, and we are trying to overcome them, one cup at a time,” says Taranjit.

Monica has added a new term that to the PadSquad vocabulary, cupversion, that means the process of converting pad users to menstrual cups. “Cupversion is a slow process and requires patience and handholding. There are a lot of psychological barriers to overcome. We intend to go back and give support, education and aim at more conversions on a regular basis,” she chirps in, having led three menstrual cups distribution drive in Mumbai, starting with Gorai.

“We were always been keen on providing sustainable solutions to women to manage their menstrual needs. A menstrual cup can last a woman from five to 10 years, it’s the way forward for the world,” says Taranjit, who with along with her friend Chand Sayyed, has distributed cups in the slum pockets of Sidharth Nagar, and sanitary pads in local communities near Andheri bridge, Andheri station, RTO, Juhu and Bandra over the last few days. 

Monica has led the green campaign at Kamathipura in Mumbai along with social activist Seema Khandale. The duo managed to ‘cupvert’ five of the eight eligible women in the red light area. “It was a promising conversion rate for starters. It was a fun session with the women there. We left feeling very overwhelmed and happy with the outcome,” adds Monica.

Chhitra started her cupversion drive at Yari Road Basti on November 8 with Monica. “This is where I went to distribute sanitary pads for the first time in May 2020. It felt joyous to be back to the same locality for my first menstrual cup drive. The women were curious and surprisingly accepting of making the shift to menstrual cups,” she says. The duo was excited to have cupverted six of the 10 women/girls in the Basti in one day.

The core idea behind introducing menstrual cups remains to care for Mother Earth in small measure by helping women make that transition from sanitary pad to a menstrual cup. “Trillions of tonnes of waste is flooding the environment every year. So we must move in a direction of more eco-friendly solutions. Though pads are a quick option, cups need more hand-holding and follow-ups with women for a longer-term. We are happy to get help from support groups for the same and look forward to getting support from organisations like FICCI and Innerwheel to get a pan-India reach,” says Taranjit.          

The collective has recently launched a new drive, #CupofKindness, in association with PeeSafe to coincide with the World Kindness Week, and World Kindness Day. “PadSquad’s collaboration with PeeSafe will help us in procuring and distributing menstrual cups to underprivileged women across the country. It is one golden opportunity to donate a #CupofKindness, and share video or photo with us using #CupofKindness,” quips Taranjit.

A menstrual cup lasts a woman 5-10 years, saving a lot of money, improving the environment (no disposable pads). And it’s available at a fabulous 50% discount. At Rs 225 per cup (v/s MRP of 499), that’s less than Rs 40 a year to provide safe menstrual hygiene to a woman. 

“So if you make a small donation of 20 cups, to begin with, Venkat Krishnan N, founder of Living My Promise, will match your donations up to 1,000 cups! Ditto for Amit Chandra, founder of The ATE Chandra Foundation and who features in the list of India’s top philanthropists, will also match your donations up to 1,000 cups. I’m sure more people like them will match, so be generous and make your contribution,” says Chhitra.

If you are planning to donate for the #CupofKindness, remember to use the discount code PADSQUAD. Here’s the link https://www.peesafe.com/collections/padsquad. 

“There are many more cups to be given. Many many more cupversions to be done, so come do good, be good this Diwali, and spread kindness,” says Monica in the parting.