Mega Rural Development Society

Initiating Campaign on Menstrual Hygiene & Care for Vulnerable Girls & Women in India

Development Labs is a non profit organization located in Delhi. We would like to run a Pan-India Project titled “Feminine Hygiene & Care Programme in India” in collaboration with your esteemed organization. The activities which would be conducted under the project are listed below:-

1.       Training NGO volunteers on menstrual hygiene and related issues

2.       Distribution of an informative booklet on the issues of physiology of menstruation, Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI), anemia, nutrition, ills of child marriage, how to use and dispose a sanitary napkin and why one should spend on sanitary napkin instead of unhygienic cloth napkin

3.       Distribution of free sample for one time.

The need of the Project:

India claims the lowest usage of feminine hygiene products in the world. Of the 496.4 million women in India, only 6% — around 30 million women — use some sort of hygienic sanitary napkin during their monthly menstruation. Compare this to the 96% rate seen in developed countries, like the United States, and India’s statistic is pitiful.

According to a recent AC Nielsen survey conducted in major metropolitan areas of India—Aurangabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Vijayawada—inadequate menstrual protection is a serious hindrance to everyday life. Indian women resort to methods of feminine hygiene that have been practiced for generations: old strips of cloth or napkins fashioned out of natural fiber husk that can be reused. Disposable sanitary napkins are expensive for poor consumers, and a lack of awareness also limits women’s comprehension of how sanitary napkins should be used and why they promote good health and hygiene.

Continuing the same issue, most Gynecologists reported that sanitary napkins can act as a preventive measure against reproductive tract infection, while 64 per cent noted that it can act as
precautionary measure to reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

In addition, Research also shows Reproductive Tract Infection was 70 per cent more common among those with unhygienic sanitary practices. Out of the 355 million menstruating women in India, only 12 per cent use sanitary napkins. The figure is abysmal, compared to countries like China, where majority of women use sanitary napkins, the survey maintained.

Observing such vulnerability in rural and in fact some urban areas, we at Development Labs has decided to initiate a project in partnership with your esteemed organization.   

Development Labs:

Shading light over Development Labs ~Inspiring New Directions~ registered under Indian Trust Act. We are a bunch of young enthusiastic people. Basically we are dealing with Awareness & Mitigation of UN-Millennium Development Goals through Apparel range, CSR Courses, and Documentaries on Social Issues, development of websites of non profit organization and much more.

We work on a simple participatory model, bridging the gap between India and Bharat with partnership with different NGOs around the Nation. The model is oriented towards increasing the flow of resources and information through the entire structure. This bi-directional approach is a hybrid model of both top-down and bottom-up approach. We, presently, offer a small range of products to serve the growing environmentally and socially sensitive consumers who want to bring about a change.

Development Labs is looking for partners to initiate this project for greater penetration in all pockets of India. If your organization don’t want to be directly associated with the cause, then you can buy our customized T-Shirts. The profit would be utilized to run this Campaign.

For further information contact us on :

musarrat.warsi@gmail.com

Pan India Project of Development Labs "Bridging Gender Digital Divide"

Information Communication Technology's offer not only e-mail, e-commerce and e-jobs, but "E-quality."

Stark Reality:

In many communities, it's a regular practice to breastfeed girls for a shorter time than boys so that women can try to get pregnant again with a boy as soon as possible. As a result, girls miss out on life-giving nutrition during a crucial window of their development, which stunts their growth and weakens their resistance to disease. This is happening in all the societies and culture around the globe since time immemorial. Women have faced discrimination be it nutrition ,education, job opportunities or in the societal norms as a whole.2/3rd of the world’s 900 million illiterates are women which has led to feminization of poverty due to obvious reason being illiterate and lagging behind men in acquiring suitable knowledge in the arena of income generation.  

The only solution of this stark reality is education, key to gender equality which strengthens a women ability to grow, to reduce poverty and to provide healthy & better life.

Whatever the underlying reasons, we at Development Labs are in constant endeavor to bring about holistic development of the vulnerable population of our society. In this process of transformation, we seek your support to achieve this mountainous task. We have successfully completed several social initiatives with the support of passionate contributors like you.

Please share this mail among your friends

Fundraising For Bridging Gender Digital Divide

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Exploring Kakdagarh...

Development Labs Distributed Brochures for Creating Awareness on Millennium Development Goals

Subedar Major Ved Prakash Sharma and Subedar Dan Singh bought Customized MDG T-Shirt of Development Labs during Awareness Campaign Organized in the Campus of FairField Institute of Management & Technology.

Ms. Shalu bought Customized MDG T-Shirt of Development Labs during Awareness Campaign Organized in the Campus of FairField Institute of Management & Technology.

MDG Awareness Campaign at FairField Institute of Management & Technology

Development Labs organized an Awareness Campaign in collaboration with FairField of Management & Technology and Institute of Public Health & Hygeine in campus of FairField Institute of Management & Technology on Friday, 3^rd Feb 2012 at Kapashera, New Delhi. The theme of the Campaign is AWARENESS  CAMPAIGN ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS.

There was large number of students, army personnel and eminent personalities of Delh and outside. Gathered people connected with the cause and promised their commitment. We also focused on generating awareness through our customised MDG T-Shirts. The interested persons who bought T-Shirts were Shalu, Subedar Major Ved Prakash Sharma, Hawaldar V.Cherian, S.K.Imtiaz, Sohrab Ahmad etc.

HIV and AIDS

HIV/AIDS:

Origin:

Together, we can make HIV/AIDS 

a page in our history books

According to “Cut Hunter Theory”, it is believed that the origin of HIV drives from some natural evolutionary event. However, recent research holds that origin of HIV/AIDS could never have happened in this way. US Government’s chief DNA sequence analyst at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Maxico Dr. Gerald Myers reported that genetic sequencing studies prove some "punctuated origin of AIDS event" took place during the mid-1970s giving rise, virtually simultaneously, to at least ten different HIV "clades" (or genetic subtypes) associated with ten different distinguishable AIDS epidemics in Africa alone.

HIV/AIDS: Worldwide& India

The latest statistics of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic was published by UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF in November 2011, it is estimated that there 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS. People infectedin 2010 with HIV were 2.7 million. On the other hand, 1.8 million deaths occurred due to AIDS in the same year. According to the WHO Progress Report on HIV/AIDS in South-East Asia 2011, an estimated 3.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2010, including 140,000 children. Women accounted for 37 percent of this population.

History of HIV in India

The presence of HIV infection was first detected in India in 1986, when Dr Jacob John and DrSuniti Solomon identified 10 HIV positive samples out of a group of 102 female sex workers from Chennai. At this time it was believed that India had little to fear from a disease that was then believed to spread primarily through sex between men, through injecting drug use and through multi-partner heterosexual sex. It was felt that this country saw very little of these risk behaviours.But these were facts were just the tip of an iceberg.When today we look at the whopping numbers of HIV/AIDS infected people be it adult male,female or children nobody could have imagined the exponential growth of this deadly infection.Today , India is the third largest country having maximum number of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The total number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in India is estimated at 24 lakh (19.3 – 30.4) in 2009. Children (<15 yrs) account for 3.5% of all infections, while 83% are the in age group 15-49 years. Of all HIV infections, 39% (9.3 lakh) are among women. The four high prevalence states of South India (Andhra Pradesh – 5 lakh, Maharashtra – 4.2 lakh, Karnataka – 2.5 lakh, Tamil Nadu – 1.5 lakh) account for 55% of all HIV infections in the country. West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are estimated to have more than 1 lakh PLHA each and together account for another 22% of HIV infections in India. The states of Punjab, Orissa, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh have 50,000 – 1 lakh HIV infections each and together account for another 12% of HIV infections. These states, in spite of low HIV prevalence, have large number of PLHA due to the large population size.

The Call

The time has arrived when we step up and break the age old taboo’s. The new initiative by NACP has worked considerably in reducing the infection by 50% in the last decade.The HIV estimates 2008-09 highlight an overall reduction in adult HIV prevalence and HIV incidence (new infections) in India. Adult HIV prevalence at national level has declined from 0.41% in 2000 to 0.31% in 2009, although variations exist across the states. The estimated number of new annual HIV infections has declined by more than 50% over the past decade.

India’s response to the HIV epidemic and the broad social mobilisation of stakeholders has achieved significant results in controlling the HIV epidemic. The achievements warrant the need for further commitment and coordinated joint action that is guided by the best available scientific evidence and technical knowledge. We need to renew our commitment to adapt and strengthen HIV prevention strategies. Close engagement with civil society and people living with and affected by HIV will prevent new infections and produce measurable impacts. We need also to protect people most affected, and promote human and gender rights. For this, India is working towards a comprehensive response to AIDS that unifies forces of stakeholders and integrates HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.”

  So let us take the 3 pledges:

1.We will support the prevention of HIV/AIDS in all possible ways

2.We will not discriminate people living with HIV/AIDS

3.We will give them equal rights in education, work place and in our society.