Irfana Zargar, an employee with Srinagar Municipal Corporation, has started an initiative to distribute free sanitary napkins in the local Srinagar region since 2014. As part of the menstrual hygiene campaign, 28-year-old Irfana gives away sanitary items. Irfana initially bought these from her savings. She has earned praise from the neighbourhood as her ‘Eva Safety Door’ sanitary napkin kit for women and young girls is now available in most public washrooms in Srinagar and nearby villages in Kashmir valley.
Irfana has been contributing the necessary sanitary items to the needy amid COVID-19 lockdown. She charges no money for her sanitary kits, NDTV reported. To date, Zargar has distributed menstrual kits in around 15 washrooms around Srinagar.
About Irfana Zargar
Irfana lost her father, Ghulam Hassan Zargar, when she was just 21-year-old. She said that the death of her father back in 2014 had pushed her into doing something meaningful in life. Irfana started distributing menstrual kits as a tribute to her father. “I believe this will elevate my father’s status in the hereafter,” news agency KNO, Groundreport.in quoted her saying. “My father was the first man in my life who would get pads for me from shops, and I am proud of my father and I wish with this initiative I have made him proud as well,” Irfana said.
“‘Eva’ means ‘women’ and ‘safety door’ refers to the fact that this is a door that opens to their safety,” she explains.
What You Should Know
- Irfana Zargar is distributing free sanitary napkins to girls and women in Srinagar.
- Her initiative called ''Eva Safety Kit'' is a service providing free menstrual kits to women and she said it's a tribute to her late father, died in 2014.
- The menstrual kit contains all the essentials for maintaining healthy menstrual practices.
Irfana's menstrual kits are also helping unprivileged girls amid the coronavirus lockdown in Kashmir. The markets were mostly closed and the girls were facing problems in buying sanitary napkins. "I started this concept in the washrooms first, when it came to my mind, I wanted to cover 15 washrooms in Srinagar city and later go to villages," said Irfana.
"If my sisters and brothers are with me then by the grace of God I will take this initiative forward and I want to take this mission to villages after the lockdown gets lifted, I will start this initiative again in the washrooms" she added.
This special menstrual kit contains sanitary napkins, antispasmodics and hand washes. It also has underwear and sanitisers. The reason being, “Sometimes we don’t know and get our periods suddenly. This is an initiative that will make accessing sanitary napkins at a time when someone is in dire need easier,” Irfana added.
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What next?
Irfana is now motivated to cover all the public washrooms in Srinagar. “I am doing this for women who will need such things in an emergency, especially women coming from the villages,” she stated.
Talking about spending all her money to the cause, she explained, “I started to give away all the sanitary items as part of charity back in 2014 and I would put several packets at two different public washrooms in Srinagar initially where women in need would use as per the requirement only to earn rewards for my deceased feather who left us in 2013.”
Further thanking her parents for the encouragement Irfana said, “There is no denial in saying that parents go beyond the limits for their children to help them in every manner. Similarly, my parents raised me with all the love and affection that encouraged me to do something for God’s sake and I believe it will earn rewards for my parents."
“There is this stigma which must be tackled and for that it is necessary to create the awareness on a larger scale,” expressed Irfana.
“Even I personally went to many places to deliver those items at the door steps of the needy and I was very successful in doing that also the post evoked great response from people,” Irfana Zargar said.
She is not stopping now. Looking into the future, Irfana also kickstarted a plan to launch a free cab service for ladies.
Feature Image Credit: groundreport.in
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