‘International Women’s Day March 8’
On a trip to Kargil, Ladakh, in 2019 as a project volunteer, the young post-graduate in Public Administration from the Jamia Milia University, New Delhi, was moved by the ignorance of the local women towards matters of menstrual health and personal health
Khushboo Joshi and her team of SHOQPA volunteers, all eager and deeply committed young women, are proving to the world that there’s only one way to bring about change in the world. And that is to start doing things yourself and show the way forward, rather than wait for the powers-that-be to act.
On a trip to Kargil, Ladakh, in 2019 as a project volunteer, the young post-graduate in Public Administration from the Jamia Milia University, New Delhi, was moved by the ignorance of the local women towards matters of menstrual health and personal health.
She found the apathy and the malaise of the government machinery towards such crucial problems of women and the girl child, equally appalling.
Khushboo immediately decided to abandon the project that had initially brought her to Kargill, made a course correction and changed tracks.
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She is pained by the indifferent attitude of the government machinery towards the problems of women and the girl child. “Sometimes it almost seems as though we do not exist at all”, she says with a sigh.
All she wanted to do now was to spread literacy and awareness among young girls and women about menstrual health and personal hygiene.
The uncooperative response from local authorities and sanitary pads’, manufacturers did not deter Khushboo and she decided it was time to take the bull by the horns.
She and a team of 20 SHOQPA volunteers, did some intensive research and came up with a successful design for a reusable sanitary pad with a life of two years.
With the cooperation of Education Department authorities in Ladakh, Khushboo was able to successfully launch a distribution programme of sanitary pads in all the schools.
To take care of reproductive health issues, the SHOQPA team has also arranged medical aid for women and girls.
She and a team of 20 SHOQPA volunteers, did some intensive research and came up with a successful design for a reusable sanitary pad with a life of two years.
Khushboo is now back in Haldwani and would like to devote her life to enlightening women on menstrual and reproductive health issue.
She would especially like to thank Muzammil Hussain, and the Co=founder of SHOQPA Nausheen Khan, for all their help and support in giving wings to her dreams. “That is what SHOQPA means – to take flight and fulfill your dreams”.
Originally a resident of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, Khushboo moved to Haldwani with her family after Grade 7 and completed her Grade 12 Board exam from there itself. She later finished her BA Hons. from Delhi University with Political Science.
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