ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2023
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. 44,000+ student leaders from 3,300+ campuses across 170+ nations applied to join the Class of 2023. 260+ campuses worldwide (just 9%) in 38 countries were selected to host 4,000+ Millennium Fellows for the Class of 2023.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT TANU CHAHAR, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2023.
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University | Lucknow, India | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 6
Millennium Fellowship Project: Rajaswala
Our project “Rajaswala” which means means “Menstruating women” is working on gender equality (SDG- 5) coupled with good health and well-being (SDG- 3). Despite impressive gains in the last five years, as many as 27% of young rural women still use unhygienic methods of protection during their menstrual period, found the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) held in 2019-21. We realise that even though menstruation is a completely biological process, it is steeped in silence, myths, taboos and even stigma. When women and girls face difficulties with managing their menstruation, it negatively impacts the enjoyment of human rights and gender equality.
The project aims to address these challeges by following a four pronged approach-
(1) Awareness, (2) Distribution (3) Sanitation and Management (4) Disposal
(1) Awareness- As we mentioned in the start of our answer, a lot of stigma around menstruation and menstrual hygiene we see around us in the society and the resulting inaccessibility of it is the product of a lack of awareness around menstruation . Moving forward, we intend to organise workshops and seminars in schools all around Lucknow starting from Indian Public Inter College Alambagh, JNV Piparsand which are in a 5 km range.
2) Distribution- We intend to ensure that the underpriviledged get the chance to take the right care of themselves which is why we plan to provide them with menstrual kits.
3) Sanitation and management- In the workshops, we will also teach people about specific hygiene and sanitation which could protect girls from several illnesses alongwith local coomunity health workers.
4) Disposal- We are planning to install vending machines for pads that would also have an incinerator built in so that the waste created can be dealt with and woud not create a dump in landfills.
About the Millennium Fellow
Tanu Chahar is a passionate law undergraduate student at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow. She aims to bring awareness in the field of education. She is very passionate about changing society at ground level and considers better education as a ground to win in most of the difficulties of life. With a passion for collaborative problem-solving and her deep-seated belief in the UN's mission, Tanu Chahar is eager to embark on this transformative journey.