my uttarakhand news Bureau
Dehradun, 20 Nov: In a country where menstrual health continues to shape the wellbeing and mobility of millions of women, the WASH Project by Humans For Humanity has become a powerful national model for community led reform. Recognising its transformative impact, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan presented the prestigious Platinum Award in the Institution Category to the organisation at the Sat Paul Mittal National Awards event. The Platinum Award carries prize money of Rs 7.5 lakhs and honours measurable, sustained and deeply rooted social impact.
Humans For Humanity, founded and led by national award-winning social worker Anurag Chauhan, has spent over a decade strengthening dignity and awareness around menstrual health. Chauhan has built one of the largest grassroots menstrual hygiene initiatives in the country. Under his leadership, the WASH Project has directly reached more than 48 lakh women and girls across seven states. It has conducted over fifteen thousand awareness workshops, travelled through thousands of villages and urban settlements, distributed millions of sanitary pads and trained thousands of women to produce low cost and eco friendly sanitary pads, creating a cycle of awareness, access and livelihood generation.
The need for this intervention remains profound. In many regions, menstruation is still wrapped in silence, shame and harmful myths. Women continue to rely on unsafe materials like old cloth, ash, sand, leaves or newspapers due to lack of access or information. These practices contribute to infections, anaemia and long-term reproductive health complications. Adolescent girls miss several days of school every month, leading to high dropout rates. In many communities where Humans For Humanity intervened, basic menstrual health information reached women for the very first time. By addressing both knowledge and access, the WASH Project has become a turning point for thousands of families.
A core element of the organisation’s approach is its deliberate involvement of men and boys in menstrual health conversations. Fathers, teachers, village elders and adolescent boys attend sensitisation sessions that help dismantle generational silence and build stigma free dialogue within families.
Chauhan began working for social causes at the age of fourteen and has remained committed to underserved communities with unwavering consistency. His work has earned multiple national and international honours, yet he continues to focus on menstrual hygiene, a field often avoided due to cultural hesitation. His model blends public health education, grassroots mobilisation and community based enterprise, ensuring long term, replicable solutions.
Upon receiving the award, Chauhan said, “Menstruation is nature’s rhythm, yet society turned it into a shadow. Our work is to bring every woman from shadow to light, from silence to dignity and from hesitation to freedom. This recognition strengthens our resolve to keep moving until every barrier falls and every voice stands tall.”
The Sat Paul Mittal National Awards are instituted by the Nehru Sidhant Kender Trust, led by Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the parent group of Airtel. His leadership reflects the Bharti Group’s longstanding engagement in education, grassroots impact and community welfare. The ceremony was attended by trustees and dignitaries including Padma Shri awardee Muktaben Pankajkumar Dagli, known for her work with visually impaired women.
The distinguished jury included former Army Chief, General Ved Prakash Malik, Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman of Medanta, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Bharat Singh Sobti, Senior Advocate General of Punjab, Onkar Pahwa, Chairman of Avon Cycles and industrialist Bipin Gupta.
Toward the conclusion of the ceremony, it was announced that the Platinum Award in the Institution Category was jointly conferred upon Humans For Humanity and Parivaar NGO in recognition of their long term contributions to social development. The event was held at Sat Paul Mittal School in Ludhiana and brought together educationists, philanthropists, administrators and civil society leaders.
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