Urmi

About Project ‘Urmi’

The Urmi Project enhances menstrual health and hygiene awareness in vasti areas & Schools, targeting women, girls, boys and men. It distributes affordable sanitary napkins and educates the community on proper disposal methods. By raising awareness about menstrual hygiene, the project aims to improve overall health standards. Additionally, it promotes the importance of correct sanitary waste disposal. Project Urmi also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Goal 03 – Good Health and Well-being, Goal 05- Gender Equality & Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption & Production.

Under this project, so far we have reached out to 39300+ girls & women to make them aware about Menstruation & provided Sanitary Napkins via Hygiene Kits (Annual requirement of a menstruating person).
Since June 2022, Urmi has also started Awareness sessions on Menstruation with School Boys and has been able to reach more than 1900 Boys so far.

Objectives

To create Awareness about Menstrual Health & Hygiene amongst both males (to some extent) & females (primary focus), and discuss the associated myths
Making Sanitary Napkins available at affordable prices (both disposable & reusable) & free distribution (with the help of individual & CSR sponsorships).
Awareness about the importance of proper disposal of used napkins and other sanitary waste.

Impact

Measureable Impact of the Project (2024–25) – Based on responses of 6,500 girl’s forms

Girls who believe menstrual blood is pure increased from 29.8% to 70.5%. The number of girls who were confused or didn’t know about periods dropped from 39% to just 11%.
Awareness about the Janaushadhi sanitary pad scheme increased from 25.1% to 84.1%.
Before the session, 78.7% of participants already knew about pills to delay periods.
After the session, 90.9% of participants understood that using such pills can be harmful to the body.
97.3% of girls said they will now track their period dates regularly.
92.3% of girls said they now feel confident to talk openly about menstruation.

This shows that the sessions helped clear doubts, improved knowledge, and gave girls the confidence to speak up and support others.

Non–measurable Impact

Urmi Project supports women from low-income communities by involving them in making Red Dot Bags, which also helps them earn some money. Through this, they learn about safe menstrual waste disposal, and the same awareness spreads to their families and neighbours. This has helped create more understanding and openness about menstrual hygiene in the community.
Many college students join the Urmi Project as interns or volunteers. By attending sessions and helping with Red Dot Bag activities, they gain a better and deeper understanding of menstruation and become more aware and sensitive toward the topic.
Urmi’s social media posts, like Friday Facts and video feedback, help spread awareness about menstruation to more people and encourage them to think and talk about it openly.
In many village schools, teachers — especially male and even some female teachers — were hesitant to talk about menstruation. After attending Urmi sessions, they gained confidence and showed willingness to talk comfortably with students.
After the boys’ sessions, many expressed their willingness to support female classmates or family members during menstruation and assured that they would not tease anyone.

Activities for creating Awareness about Menstruation

Urmi Awareness Session: Scientific information on Menstruation in easy to understand language is imparted to the beneficiaries (Women, Adolescent Girls, Adolescent Boys). Information about basics of menstruation like why it happens, changes that occur in the body, personal hygiene to be maintained, diet, available products in the market, etc. is provided during the session.
Interactive Session at workplace:
Reducing the taboo, having open conversation about menstruation and sharing scientific information at the workplace with a group of co-workers (mix gender groups) are some of the objectives of this activity.
This activity comprises of introductions, information about Urmi, group discussions, a short film or presentation on menstruation and activity feedback.
Train The Trainer:
Training is provided to the interested volunteers/trainers in multiple sessions, so that they can conduct awareness sessions independently in the future.
Red Dot Bag (Sanitary Waste Disposal Bag) Activity:
Project Urmi (All about menstruation) works for awareness of menstrual health and hygiene. Through this project we also provide Sanitary Napkins and Red dot Bags to beneficiaries from community areas.
Red Dot Bag activity tries to spread awareness about proper disposal of used sanitary napkins amongst larger society. This activity enables society to adapt to clean and hygienic disposal of sanitary waste, so that it can be easily segregated by the waste pickers at the source.
According to a study done by SWaCH, every day it collects 650 tonnes of waste in Pune, of which 3-5 per cent is sanitary waste (diapers and pads). The waste pickers end up segregating 20 tonnes (roughly 20,000 kg) of sanitary waste every day, which becomes a serious occupational hazard.

Volunteer Role

Volunteers will learn to make Red Dot Bag with the use of old newspapers for this activity.
They can take a target of either 100, 300, or 500+bags and donate them to Project Urmi.
Being a changemaker, Volunteers can participate to create awareness in their friends, family about this.

How to make sanitary waste disposal bag

You can also contribute in the following ways:

Help us in making Disposal Paper bags to support – Red Dot Campaign.
Individual sponsorship to sponsor a group of girls on monthly basis.
Volunteer for awareness sessions. Organize Donation Drives.

For more updates, follow us on Instagram

Urmi Magzine

Annual Report

2024-2025

2023-2024

2022-2023

2021-2022

2020-2021

United Nations Development Programme’s

Sustainable Goals aligned with Urmi