Who says it's just a piece of cloth !!
Millions of women use sand,ash,mud,grass,rags anything,they think can absorb during menses in India.A hugely taboo subject,monthly reality for millions is not even a subject for most of the projects.
Stories are shocking-a lady using piece of blouse and dying of tetanus due to metal hook inside,another died as a centipede entered her body. Women share same cloth within family or neighbors and countless women loose uterus due to infections.
Shame & silence associated with the issue makes it most taboo subject even among women.This initiative is making them aware about a fundamental issue,highlighting their high-risk behavior and simple solutions.We want to change-the scenario of this monthly disaster (as many of them call it!!) with localized, affordable solution.
About You
About You
First Name
Anshu
Last Name
Gupta ( Ashoka Fellow)
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
GOONJ
Organization Website
Organization Phone
9111-41401216
Organization Address
J-93, Sarita vihar, New Delhi-76
Organization Country
India, DL
Country where this project is creating social impact
India, XX
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Who says it's just a piece of cloth !!
What change do you want to bring to the world?
Millions of women use sand,ash,mud,grass,rags anything,they think can absorb during menses in India.A hugely taboo subject,monthly reality for millions is not even a subject for most of the projects.
Stories are shocking-a lady using piece of blouse and dying of tetanus due to metal hook inside,another died as a centipede entered her body. Women share same cloth within family or neighbors and countless women loose uterus due to infections.
Shame & silence associated with the issue makes it most taboo subject even among women.This initiative is making them aware about a fundamental issue,highlighting their high-risk behavior and simple solutions.We want to change-the scenario of this monthly disaster (as many of them call it!!) with localized, affordable solution.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Sensitizing urban masses:GOONJ works through the year, educating urban masses especially women. Our goal is to change their attitude towards menses as a taboo subject and show them how their old cloth can be a big resource for another sitting in far flung areas of country. Our message is ‘half of India doesn’t need a disaster to be helped.For women who are forced to struggle for a small piece of cloth every month, even menses is a monthly disaster.’.
Collection of material- Generation of material happens through awareness cum collection camps in big neighborhoods, Schools, Corporate offices etc. Volunteers play a big role in these efforts.People further spread campaign in their respective work place, schools etc.
Process- collected material is sorted & packed at GOONJ’s central processing center. At sorting level, un-wearable cotton cloth is separated & cut into sanitary napkin size, washed and dried in sunlight, it’s then wrapped in several layers of cloth for absorption. Pack of 5 napkins is wrapped in a newspaper bag,ready for dispatch.
Education- We provide information material (hygiene,importance of sunlight,disposal etc issues) to partner group personnel who talk to women.Providing pads is tied to women attending awareness sessions/meetings at distribution points, facilitating better reach to wider audiences.In time, we train partner groups & local women to replicate on smaller scale to supplement our material.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Sanitary pads that are practical,affordable & environment friendly are still on an experimental level.As the commercial sector has not been able to provide a cheap & good pad, masses in village India still survive on all kind of bad practices.A few NGOs, women’s groups have taken it as an add-on activity limited to sporadic distribution.
Apart from costing,the bigger challenge is that,universally essential phenomenon among women hasn’t got enough attention in development sector. There is no macro analysis of the problem or any efforts to adapt the small initiatives to different target groups.The evident connection it has with serious health hazards still hasn’t translated into comprehensive remedial action. Even at the time of disasters,very few agencies pay attention to this basic need that ironically becomes more acute due to non-availability of normal clothing and own covered space.The irony-even the biggest health projects often don’t have a budget for pads.
This nationwide intervention,starts with a basic pad & stresses more on changing practices,behavior,education & replication.Pad is developed out of old cloth with highly indigenous process at a cost of just Re 1 each (less than 2 cents).
This is an entry point to generate more awareness on the related health and hygiene issues.In the cities for the first time we are initiating discussions by directly involving the urban women,drawing on their instinctive empathy. The use of cloth; a material most village women are comfortable and familiar with, coupled with the reuse possibilities makes it a viable option.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
We call it Triple-A, 3 key factors of accessibility, affordability and awareness. Communities with absence of these 3 are our priority.
-Rural population in parts of 21 states where we reach material with a target to reach the remotest villages which is our main target to implement our other initiatives also.
• Tribal population and people living on the borders as the border people go through a continuous miserable life.
• Landless laborers in the villages, nomads.
• Women- across these states- directly. In other states- indirectly as a result of replication by other groups
• Lower middle class and below that of urban slums including maids, servants.
• Villages at large- the entire population of these villages as a result of hundreds of development activities under Cloth for work, our major activity .
• Adolescent girls in Schools/colleges
• Urban people- as we provide them a reliable channel of discarding their unwanted/ underutilized material
GOONJ tries to reach people in the far flung areas of some of the poorest states in India i.e. to benefit the most marginalized communities like the child laborers and their families in the glass bangle factories of Firozabad (U.P.), quarry workers in Tamil Nadu, the frequently flood hit villagers of Sunderbans (West Bengal) or the Moosahari community (Bihar). We identify and work through a reliable network of partners- Ashoka Fellows, Panchayats, units of Indian army. SHGs and education authorities for schools.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Popularly known as Clothing Man,Anshu Gupta founded GOONJ with a mission to make clothing a matter of concern & to bring it among list of subjects for development sector.An Ashoka Fellow and Global Ambassador of Ashoka, Anshu is creating a mass movement for recycling & reuse of tones of waste material by channelising it from cities to villages, as resource for rural development under a unique initiative- 'Cloth for Work'
Winner of many prestigious awards like CNN IBN Real Heros Award,India NGO of Year Award,Changemakers Innovation Award,World Banks'DM award, GOONJ is known as largest non monetary resource agency,a new term in development sector.
Anshu travels extensively to understand needs of people.It was during these interactions with women in deep interiors of India,Anshu came across horror stories of shame, suffering and taboo around use of cloth during menses. On the other hand in urban India he saw the piles of clothes people discard.GOONJ is filling this gap by matching the need.
Anshu has studied communication with a Masters in Economics. As a graduate student he traveled to Uttarkashi after a major earthquake there.He lived in tents for days and helped in relief efforts. This was his first real exposure to problems of masses in villages of India, something that shocked his urban sensibilities. Soon after he joined corporate sector but left it to start GOONJ, his dream for many years. GOONJ has come a long way from personal 67 clothes Anshu started with, reaching out more than 80 tonnes of cloth and other material every month.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
The biggest impact is in the shape of a government policy which is now in place for the first time in India- on this issue.
Others-
-More than 2.00 million pads provided in last 3 years alone.
• Now produce about 1.5 million pads every year.
• 70 grassroots organizations across 15 states of India working with GOONJ on this issue.
• More than 200 meetings held in villages across India, talking to village women about the taboos and related health and hygiene issues.
• 75 Display cum exhibition held in the villages,highlighting good practices, health issues, taboos and superstitions around this issue.
• More than 500 collection camps held in metros
• 15 Grassroots organizations (personnel) and village women trained in replicating the napkin production as an employment generation activity.
• Production process easily replicable in any part of India or the world.
• Village level meetings bring out highly taboo subject in open. Women talk about a subject they don’t even discuss openly with other women.
• Pads produced without any machines or technological inputs. Entirely manual operations employing women from nearby slums in entire process.
• Tonnes of waste cloth, which would have gone in landfill sites is converted into the pads.
• Large scale employment in the process to the most marginalized community.
Village indicators ( Quantitative)
Number of partner groups working with us on the issue
Number of women using the GOONJ pads
No. of partner groups, taken initiative of pad production locally
Qualitative
Is this program helping spread awareness on the issue from one to more family members
The incidence of reproductive and other related infections among the beneficiaries
Usage patterns and practices of these pad
City Indicators- Quantitative:
No of awareness cum collection camps organised by volunteers & Corporates
Quantity of material being sorted every month at the GOONJ processing center
No of pads being made
Qualitative
The kind of cloth being given by people.
Number of volunteers, spreading awareness
Number of meetings and forums we address on the issue
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Add 10 more organisations in 5 more states and spread it in 10 more cities.
Task 1
Specific campaign in metros targeting women;housewives,teachers,professionals on sponsoring pads.
Message;every month when you go through menses,think of your counterpart in a village
Task 2
Organise major replication training workshops for all our partner groups from Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh; some of the most backward states of India
Task 3
Target exporters to give away more of waste cotton cloth across the country.
Identify your 12-month impact milestone
production to 2.0 million pads every year
Task 1
Target 10 more cities to participate and organise large scale awareness campaigns.
Task 2
Add 10 more partners and also develop production facilities with 3 active partners.
Task 3
2 more GOONJ centers to start production locally.
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
In the next three years this project will take a new trajectory;
1. that of an idea leadership, with wide scale replication in India and extensive documentation on different aspects, we feel our focus should be on making policy level impact plus it will be ready to be taken to other similar ecosystems especially in South Asia and Africa.
2. On direct work level, we want to further push the sponsorship model to make the work more sustainable so that we are able to reach the pads to the most needy areas like north eastern India, deeper into Sunderbans (West Bengal), Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The bigger work is to launch a campaign among urban women, connecting them more deeply with this work;as volunteers, idea ambassadors, sponsors, trainers etc..
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
1. sustained funding; On face of it an operational challenge,lack of sustained funding is in reality our greatest strength.GOONJ works through its large citizen base and its growth is owed to its thousands of volunteers and an anonymous mass of people who have passed the word around about the idea & supported us financially.We think our financial survival despite all odds is a barometer of how well the idea is working among people
2. behavioural change in urban masses; lot of people in the cities feel they are doing greatest deed in giving away their waste, others think of material giving as way of clearing their wardrobes,some have doubts on NGO sector and media stories of material on roads after disasters leads to mistrust on system & effectiveness of distribution.Through our awareness cum collection camps throughout year we talk about giving only usable material,cloth being a symbol of dignity.
3. Reluctance of partner groups;Menses being a hugely taboo subject, we first talk to partner group personnel to highlight relevance & need.Initially napkins are given with other clothing we distribute, positive initial interest & feedback from women encourages partner groups & attracts them as a way to connect with them… FACT IS, AFTER INITIAL HESITATION WOMEN TALK AND SHARE A LOT ON THIS ISSUE, SINCE THEY DON’T GET TO SHARE THEIR PROBLEMS WITH ANYBODY ABOUT THIS.
4. Slow process of behavioral change in user women; Give a women a clean cloth napkin to experience first hand what it feels like,tell her the health risk around using dirty cloth,educate her about simple good practices,teach her how she can make a napkin on her own and give cloth to her entire family,so she has a spare cloth for future;THEN SHE WILL NEVER GO BACK TO DIRTY CLOTH NOR THE UNHYGIENIC PRACTICES, Miss any part of this solution and impact will suffer…
5. Charging end beneficiary is tough as we are trying to reach poorest of poor who can’t afford even one meal a day. Involving urban women as sponsor, low cost operations and local level production are providing solution to this. Rural women contribute under Cloth for work programme.New & taboo subject does not attract corporate or agencies support- mass level awareness, transparent systems & regular feedback has helped us in addressing this point.
Tell us about your partnerships
GOONJ is running a nationwide movement highlighting the importance of cloth as a basic need of the poor. In the cities, we involve masses: corporates, collages, schools, hospitals, hotels, individuals, professionals,exporters, retail chains,government offices etc.-about the important role their discarded cloth can play in the lives of their resource starved village counterparts. We tell urban women about the taboo & the lack of awareness on menses, how it’s a monthly disaster for their village counterparts. They are involved in spreading awareness, collecting & channelising of the material. In parts of 21 states of India, we have built partnerships with a network of over 250 grassroots groups including units of India army, NGOs, CBOs, Panchayats, social activities & Ashoka fellows, where GOONJ material helps strengthen their work with the communities. They reach the material to the final user. Without much extra investment, just by strengthening the existing work this initiative is spreading fast.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
All the entities mentioned above play an important role in supporting and sustaining our work in urban and rural India. The big scale has been achieved because of the involvement of people as volunteers at every level; from collection to processing, packaging to transportation and implementation in rural India. Given our limited resources and work in a so called non issue area, foundations, businesses, individuals have contributed financially or though services, skills or material for example transport companies transport our material either free of cost or at very subsidized rates, people give us space in their homes as collection centers. So much so that all the infrastructure, office equipment and furniture in all our ten offices; not one thing has been bought, everything has been given by the corporates. Right from a grain merchant( who gives us his used gunny bags to pack material) to the top corporates who give us computers, laptops and their trained personnel to help with technological issues; our work is supported, sustained and spreading because of the involvement of individuals to institutions and organizations. Since cloth is a universal need, for us the target audience is also universal Everyone city, town, district has some people, institutions who have something to give, we just need to exploit this vast potential of people…
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
1.Spread; Even though we are reaching parts of 21 states of India, each state is equal to small countries by themselves plus the sheer socio economic and cultural variations in each state present its own challenges..Given this scenario,we want to focus on some underdeveloped states in the coming years; Bihar, M.P.,Orissa and West Bengal.A closer look shows that these are some of the most disaster prone & backward states.
2. Replication; Together with accentuating and spreading the work, our focus will be on consolidating the ongoing work to focus on partner groups who are serious on this work. To work closer on highlighting the issue in the cities of above mentioned states, to fine tune and finalize a replication kit for other organizations to replicate the work at different levels.
3. Advocacy; Given the government’s slight interest in this issue over the last 1-2 years, its time to build on this interest and ensure that it keeps on the right track and doesn’t get sidelined or hijacked by vested interests in commercial sector who are keen to bring a cheaper version of the present Sanitary napkin to village India, where its affordability and disposal present economic and environmental issues..
4. Strengthening processes and systems; As the work spreads and we transfer it to the groups to replicate, its very important to strengthen and fine tune all the systems around the idea, to plug gaps, weaknesses and loopholes so that others don’t make the same mistakes and the success rate is much higher in the first phase itself encouraging more people to join in.
Challenges
Which barriers to health and well-being does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of access to targeted health information and education
SECONDARY
Lack of affordable care
TERTIARY
Lack of physical access to care/lack of facilities
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Product-practical,affordable & environment friendly sanitary pads are still absent in village India.Few NGOs,women’s groups do work, limited to small communities.Our is affordable, large scale, people friendly intervention.
Awareness: It's a hugely taboo subject, women don’t even talk to each other,treating as a synonym of dirt.This universal women’s need hasn’t got enough attention from development sector.-We work through the year in spreading awareness on this issue among urban masses,especially women and talk about issue at various national & international forums .
Looking at clothing need holistically: GOONJ’s work on clothing plus replication all across is ensuring that women get an ongoing supply of cloth for sanitary pads even after direct supply of napkins stops.
How are you growing the impact of your organization or initiative?
Please select up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
SECONDARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
TERTIARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
GOONJ is working on all directions parallely:
1. Spreading idea:Massive need across village & slum India & supply potential in cities & towns, can’t be addressed by GOONJ alone. We are sharing & spreading idea in India & internationally for wider replication.
2. Spreading work; exploring more sources of generating bigger quantities of cloth,identifying more potential urban stakeholders like exporters, hotels etc., organizing collections on a bigger scale, going deeper into interiors of village India.
3. Policy intervention; using health,women & development sector forums to highlight issue,media engagement & education, developing a documentation & analysis on subject to generate interest in relevant think tank institutions like management schools,research organizations etc.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
Our entire model is based on collaborations with different stakeholders in civic society, since we want to reach biggest number of people as every one has something to give. For profit companies and academia get us an organized captive audience economically &easily. Government collaborations help us with infrastructure & reaching difficult areas. Technology providers help us reach more people through different media,strengthen our processes & systems,get us access to better communication,other management tools & skills… NGO’s are the backbone of our idea;our eyes,ears & hands for last leg implementation.They tell us about communities & their needs in deep interiors of rural India; otherwise impossible to specifically address varied needs of people in 21 different states.
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