Overview

Maanushi Foundation started its activities in December 2020 as a voluntary collective to promote sustainable practices and menstrual health education in the village of Kumily, Idukki. We are a small team of students, housewives, and social workers, with a vision for environmental conservation and gender equality. Through both offline and online modes, we have reached over 1500 young girls and women as part of our initiative and have been able to distribute free, reusable cloth pad kits to over 200 menstruators- a total of 800 cloth pads. We have been focussing on driving sensitization campaigns on issues faced by rural women and on climate change-related concerns in the community. Along with conducting educational and awareness sessions on menstruation, we are working to implement economic activities for sustainable livelihood development among marginalised groups. As a part of the interaction with the community at various levels, we came to realise that the pandemic has deeply affected the economic condition of people, forcing families into abject poverty, discontinuation of studies of young students and so on. To help the community in our capacity, we began a small entrepreneurial venture to sell the products (such as handmade soaps, bioenzyme, multigrain health mix powder, pickles etc) made by a few women in the community. We currently have an online store that acts as a platform to sell these products pan India and a physical shop at Kumily, which acts as a space for the members to come together and initiate different activities. Founders: Lakshmy Das, Pooja G Nair