From shattering the stigma around menstruation to giving free haircuts to children – this week’s top social stories

Winston Churchill once said, “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life.” 

This week, we have covered many individuals and institutions who have epitomised this through their acts of kindness.

While 26-year-old Deane De Menezes is shattering the stigma around menstruation among children and adolescents, an Indore-based Ola driver, Anil Yadav, is driving people with medical emergencies to hospitals for free during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

SocialStory has put together these extraordinary stories of the citizenry who are not only bringing about positive transformations in their communities, but are also putting their lives on the line to help others.

Here are the top stories of the week. 

This Mumbai-based woman is tirelessly working towards spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene 

Born in the city of limitless opportunities, Mumbai, Deane De Menezes was instilled with the importance of giving back to society since she was a child. Since then, she’s made it her life’s mission to make a positive impact in the lives of others. Determined to shatter the stigma around menstruation, Deane, in 2016, launched an initiative called Red is the New Green (RING).

She started small by encouraging open dialogue about menstrual hygiene among students through workshops and awareness sessions. She went on to establish a not-for-profit organisation by the same name, and worked towards ensuring accessibility of menstrual products by installing sanitary vending machines and incinerators in more than 50 educational institutes.  

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, like many other essential supplies, sanitary napkins were also short in supply. Deane decided to step in and helped around 12,700 women by distributing over two lakh sanitary pads across slums and rural areas in Maharashtra. 

Meet the Ola driver who is offering people free rides to hospitals during COVID-19

For 28-year-old cab driver Anil Yadav, a resident of Chhota Bangarda in Indore, going above and beyond the call of duty to save a person’s life was not new. 

Ever since the coronavirus-led lockdown was imposed in March, Anil has been providing medical transportation to people in need, free of cost. One of 10 in a large family, Anil says he empathises with people whose loved ones need urgent medical attention and tries to help them however he can.

In the last 45 days, Anil has helped transport food, medicines, and people, and in the process, completed close to 200 rides. The owner of a farm, he has been drawing Rs 30,000 from Ola’s emergency driver-partner fund to make ends meet, and providing helpful cab rides is his way of giving back to the community.

These volunteers are helping the most vulnerable individuals amid the pandemic

Several NGOs and individuals have been working throughout the lockdown to ensure migrant workers and daily wage earners get enough food, rations, and hygiene essentials to survive the pandemic. 

One such group is Pranyas Foundation, founded by IIT Bombay alumnus Rahul Sharma. Rahul and his team of volunteers have distributed more than 30,000 meals so far.

The entire team of Pranyas has been visiting villages and districts in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, along with Delhi, to identify the places where the impact of the pandemic is the greatest. They have been making immediate efforts to build temporary kitchens to cook and distribute food in sanitised environments. 

This small-town hairdresser is giving free haircuts to underprivileged children in Mumbai 

Even since the lockdown was announced, the closure of barbershops has been causing inconvenience to people at large.

While some chose to retain their long locks, others started seeking help from family members and friends to get their hair trimmed. Messy hair, ungroomed faces, and dishevelled appearances have become the new norm in the time of coronavirus. 

Amid all this, Ravindra Birari, a hairdresser from Titwala in the Thane district of Maharashtra, has been giving free haircuts to poor children once a week. He is known to take to the streets of Mumbai himself, and trim the hair of kids who cannot afford to pay for it.   

How farmers are overcoming multiple challenges to sell their produce amid the lockdown

The nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in severe labour shortages, transport impediments, and reduced market access, leaving thousands of farmers in the lurch. Despite this, some farmers in the far-flung areas of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Odisha, are coming together to ensure the continuation of farming activities – mostly selling of the produce – with the help of local administration.

Village Development Committees (a group facilitated by the Indo-Global Social Service Society) have been recording the issues being faced in the farming sector and redressing the grievances of the farmers.

For instance, Prabhu Mahto, a VDC member from Hulu, made a list of farmers in distress and, with special permission from their local MLA, got the street vendors a special pass during the initial days of lockdown, thus helping minimise the economic loss faced by farmers there. 

Because of many such efforts, farmers across these states managed to sell a net 5,125 quintals of various crops, worth around Rs 6.10 lakh.