On the occasion of Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026, the Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group) launched a community-based menstrual hygiene awareness campaign across 18 villages in Barota, Karnal in Haryana and Purquazi in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. The initiative focuses on improving awareness, accessibility and preventive healthcare support for women and adolescent girls in rural communities.

The project will see DS Group training 30 women volunteers referred to as “Jagruk Didis” via a Training of Trainer (ToT) programme. These women will thereafter conduct awareness programmes at the village level on menstrual hygiene and other relevant health issues using various IEC materials including flip charts and educational aprons.

The campaign is expected to directly reach nearly 4,500 adolescent girls and women within one month.

Prabhakant Jain, GM, Sustainability & CSR, DS Group said, “the initiative aims to create awareness at the grassroot level around menstrual hygiene while empowering women leaders to become catalysts of change within their villages. Through the ‘Jagruk Didi’ model, we hope to strengthen preventive healthcare awareness and reach nearly 4,500 women and adolescent girls across 18 villages.”

According to the organisation, the initiative also seeks to build a sustainable village-level support system by developing selected “Jagruk Didis” into community health ambassadors. The approach is intended to strengthen outreach, encourage behavioural change and ensure continuity of awareness, counselling and preventive healthcare support for women and adolescent girls.

This campaign is being carried out in areas where communities still suffer from various problems including issues of healthcare, reproductive health education, schools, and job creation. Menstrual hygiene is still regarded as a very delicate topic in many rural settings, mainly because of social taboos surrounding it.

DS Group said it is currently operating mobile medical clinics across 18 villages and supporting primary healthcare centre (PHC) services in Barota, Karnal through the deployment of doctors, medical equipment and gynaecologist consultations. These services are being extended to women and adolescent girls from the project villages as well as neighbouring communities.

The organisation also conducts regular counselling sessions and awareness programmes focused on menstrual hygiene, anaemia, nutrition and reproductive health. According to the Foundation, government schools in the region have also collaborated for awareness sessions for girl students, which are being conducted by healthcare teams and gynaecology specialists.