This ‘Padwoman’ of Kashmir provides free sanitary napkins to women across the region
Irfana Zargar is a household name in the Valley for distributing sanitary napkins to underprivileged women and girls.
After her father passed away, Irfana Zargar of Nowshera in Srinagar wanted to do something for the under-privileged in his memory. She began her mission by distributing sanitary pads to young girls in the city. Soon, what started as a tribute turned into a passion.
Sanitary kits distributed by Irfana Zargar
Twenty-eight-year-old Irfana is today a household name in the Valley. For the past six years she has been providing free sanitary napkins to hundreds of women across Kashmir besides supplementing more than a dozen public toilets with sanitary kits in Srinagar.
“I have been working for this cause since 2014 when my father Ghulam Hassan Zargar died of cardiac arrest. Without being funded by any non-governmental organisation (NGO) or government, I am paying from my own pocket despite being a contractual low paid employee at Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC),” Zargar tells HerStory.
She claims that she has distributed more than 10,000 sanitary pads in the last seven months besides distributing menstrual kits in 15 public washrooms around Srinagar city.
Irfana’s initiative ‘Eva Safety Door’ that aims at providing free sanitary pads among other things to poor women at public toilets across Srinagar has won her huge appreciation. “‘Eva’ means ‘women’ and ‘safety door’ refers to the fact that the initiative is a door that opens to their safety,” she explains.
Her special menstrual kit contains sanitary napkins, antispasmodics and hand washes, besides clean undergarments and sanitisers.
She says her next target is to reach underprivileged women in the far-flung villages of Kashmir.
Helping the underprivileged
During the lockdown last year following the spread of the coronavirus, Irfana says a majority of the women who approached her were single mothers, widows and handicapped women who had a meager source of income.
“Their financial problems doubled due to the COVID-19 lockdown as all their sources of income stopped. The needy women come to my home to receive sanitary kits while the girls sent their parents to collect the napkins.”
Irfana has created accounts on social media for outreach and gets most of her requests there. “I also receive calls, messages from those in need and after receiving the requests, I drop the napkins at their doorstep,” she says.
In the Kashmir Valley, menstruation still remains a taboo topic. There is very little discussion surrounding menstrual hygiene, women’s health and the problems young girls face when they do not have access to period products.
Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan