While one-day visits to rural areas have been the norm for most youngsters engaging in social work, the actions of students of HR College of Commerce and Economics indicate that they are in it for the long haul. The student-led social entrepreneurship club at the college, Enactus, has been running ‘Project Inaayat’ since 2018, with an aim to make menstrual hygiene more accessible to communities that are still using alternatives like rags instead of menstrual pads.

As a result, the students went to schools and neighbourhoods in Palghar and Thane districts, such as Dahanu, Kasa, and Murbad last month to distribute 1000 kits each containing three reusable pads, an instructional chart in Marathi, and a bar of soap. “We were a group of 31 undergraduate students who went to Dahanu last month, where we spoke to women about menstruation and tried to create a free-flowing conversation around the topic,” said Nandini Agarwal, a media student and the co-president of Enactus.