Women turn brand ambassadors of sustainable menstrual products taking the multi-billion dollar industry of disposables head on.

Listen to various stakeholders from the social venture investors, nonprofit sector, social entrepreneurs, and medical fraternity join hands in the spirit of collaboration debunking misinformation and talking of facts and personal experiences on sustainable menstruation in particular and Periods at large! Busting misinformation in pursuit of Ms information 🙂

The Simply Suparnaa © Media Network recently hosted an insightful panel discussion on the topic of sustainable menstrual products and their impact on the billion-dollar industry dominated by disposable products. The panelists, who brought a wealth of experience and expertise, shared their insights and experiences on the subject.

Dr. Meenakshi Bharat, a gynecologist with 35 years of experience specializing in fertility work, has made it her mission to advocate for sustainable living. In addition to her medical practice, she actively promotes waste reduction, composting, and the use of reusable products. Dr. Bharat’s commitment to sustainability even extends to organizing waste-free weddings for her children. Her valuable insights on the health benefits of sustainable menstrual products added great value to the discussion.

Sashi Rajamani, a founding member of Social Venture Partners in Bengaluru, brought two decades of corporate experience to her work in promoting social impact ventures and foundations. As the managing trustee of the Konrai Foundation, Rajamani collaborates with over 20 NGOs, striving to create a platform for promoting performing arts while addressing social and environmental challenges, including sustainable menstruation.

Dr Shanthi Thummala, initially trained as a dentist, took a bold step by leaving her job to lead the Swachh Siddipet campaign in collaboration with the Telangana government. Her expertise in waste management proved invaluable in streamlining waste segregation, collection, transportation, and disposal. Driven by her passion for environmental conservation, Dr. Thummala also spearheaded the sustainable menstruation campaign, aiming to address the environmental damage caused by sanitary waste in Siddipet.

Malini Parmar, with a strong background in the global IT industry and an education from prestigious institutions such as IIM-Kolkata and Delhi College of Engineering, decided to leverage her experience for social change. Co-founding Stonesoup, a social enterprise dedicated to sustainable living, Parmar offers a range of products that contribute to a greener future. As a single parent and advocate for sustainable menstruation, Parmar shared her personal experiences and insights during the panel discussion.

The panelists brought diverse perspectives and experiences to the table, creating a dynamic discussion that touched upon the health benefits of sustainable menstrual products, the environmental impact of disposable alternatives, and the empowerment of women as brand ambassadors for sustainable options. By challenging the status quo, these panelists are leading the way toward a future where women’s health and the well-being of the planet are prioritized.

You will also love reading about my experience with gifting cloth pads to girls with hearing impairment in Noida.

Psst : If you’re doing GOOD the SABERA jury is looking for your work to acknowledge you.

The post 17 K Crore industry of disposables- Do sustainable menstrual products stand a chance? appeared first on Woman Endangered.

it’s true, it’s true, it’s true.

This is the ring you gave me and these are your promises!”

(Artemisia’s statement to her perpetrator while being tortured during her rape trial. The judge had her tortured with thumbscrews, as was the norm. Loops of string were wound around her fingers and tightened till she cried ‘E Vero’!)

Women painters are not widely discussed and a list of outstanding painters is likely to miss a woman. Whether it is the result of relatively fewer women artists or the inherent male bias against them (or both) is debatable and an enduring conundrum. Fortuitously, many of them stand out judged even by the most exacting parameters and have presented to humanity some of the finest expressions of human emotions. And yet their talent and accomplishments offer fascinating but perplexing insights regarding their place in history. One such artist of foremost mention is Artemisia Gentileschi.

In the centuries of renaissance that provided a spurt in creative human genius, women still had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists. Artemisia bucked this trend, overcame convention and was to become the first woman member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence. Her work got noticed not merely in Italy but was to earn a clientele far beyond her shores.

Artemisia was undoubtedly the greatest female artist of the baroque age and one of the most brilliant followers of the incendiary and violent Caravaggio. Her work, high in quality and fetching in themes, dominated the first half of the 17^th century with paintings defined by extraordinary colours, masterful brushstrokes, sartorial brilliance and of course, themes of revenge and reprisal.

Despite losing her mother at twelve, her first paintings appeared when she was just fifteen. Trained by her father Orazio, himself a painter of repute, and largely following the style and passion of the mercurial genius Caravaggio, she became a sincere, hardworking and devoted pupil to her father, who was also to be her collaborator in many of their future works across Europe. And yet, Artemisia’s approach to painting was different from her father’s, taking a highly naturalistic approach over his comparatively idealized works.

The Making of an Extraordinary Woman

Artemisia was raped by her own painting tutor, Agostino Tassi. This occurred when she was a mere teenager. Charges were pressed nine months after the incident because Tassi promised to marry her and restore her dignity, a promise on which he reneged. Artemisia thus had to become an active participant in her rapist’s trial were before reaching a verdict, the judge had her tortured with thumbscrews to verify her testimony. As was the norm then to discourage false accusations, loops of string were wound around her fingers and tightened till she cried out, “E Vero, e Vero, e Vero” – it’s true, it’s true, it’s true. Unbroken, she looked at her rapist and, referring to the loops of string, said: “This is the ring that you give me, and these are your promises.”

The trial lasted seven months and ended in Tassi’s conviction and sentenced him to exile from Rome. But the ordeal scarred Artemisia’s soul permanently. Things were to worsen when Tassi escaped unscathed, having managed a Papal pardon; ironically, much like her mentor Caravaggio once had, for murder. For many years after this, she remained a mere curiosity.

It is a persistent eternal irony of societal mores that while a lecherous Picasso, a lascivious Reuben and a murderous Caravaggio would never get censored or have their works discounted under a moral lens, Artemisia bore the burden of ignominy all her life and could never see herself be appreciated independent of the slur so involuntarily imprinted into her persona.

Her life and art have however been reexamined by scholars in the 20^th and 21^st centuries and she is now regarded as one of the most progressive and expressive painters of her generation; the recognition of her talents exemplified by major exhibitions of her work at internationally esteemed fine art institutions.

Her Craft and Subjects

There are about fifty-seven works by Artemisia and forty-nine of them feature women as protagonists or equal to men. Most of Artemisia’s paintings feature women from myths, allegories and the Bible, including victims, suicides and warriors. The characters she portrayed intentionally lacked the stereotypical ‘feminine’ traits — sensitivity, timidity and weakness and were portrayed as courageous, rebellious, and powerful.

Artemisia was known for being able to depict the female figure with great naturalism and for her skill in handling colours to express dimension and drama. She understood that the representation of biblical or mythological figures in contemporary dress was an essential feature of the spectacle of courtly life, and she abundantly employed this style in her paintings after carefully and meticulously studying the sartorial elegance and vibrancy of contemporary times.

Some of her best-known subjects are Susanna and the Elders, Judith Slaying Holofernes, Judith and Her Maidservant, Mary Magdalene, Esther before Ahasuerus, Cleopatra and Bathsheba.  Judith Slaying Holofernes remains her most representative and popular painting. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith’s home, the city of Bethulia. He invites Judith to his tent and is tricked by her into passing out by excessive drinking. He is then decapitated by Judith with the help of her maidservant, and his head taken away in a basket and brought to Bethulia.

This particular painting has been a focal point in interpreting her artwork and her mind. Its understanding ranges from being seen as a representation of revenge and her rebellious sense of violence to being simply hailed for its brilliant colour scheme, elaborate expression, rich costumes and choice of characters. And yet, it is generally believed that her choice of themes was an expression of the repressed frustration and helplessness she faced in her adolescent life.

The Feminist Hue

For a woman at the beginning of the 17^th century, Artemisia choosing life as a painter represented an uncommon and difficult choice. Her evaluation that saw both recognition and prominence came about largely on merit but was also propagated by feminist scholars. She was elevated to the status of feminist icon largely because of the choice of characters she painted and for making a mark in a field dominated and dictated by men. That Artemisia was aware of her position as a female artist and the current representations of women’s relationship to art only reveal the acuity of her perception and grasp of the prevailing realities. In one of her self-portraits – La Pittura – she shows herself as a muse, as an embodiment of art and her artistic proclivities.

But the staunch feminists may have caused noticeable disservice to her by investing historically, intellectually and politically in a narrative that sought to undo a perceived injustice. There does rest a case to portray her as a traumatized but noble survivor whose work became characterized by sex and violence as a result of her experience, but this is likely a post facto feminist-oriented judgment, because merely a century after her death, her work was marvelled as free of feminist baggage. “No one would have imagined that it was the work of a woman. The brushwork was bold and certain, and there was no sign of timidness.”, a critic wrote then.

Legacy

It requires a certain degree of imagination and appreciation of the gender equations prevailing in Italian society then, to truly understand and evaluate the genius of this extraordinarily gifted and resolutely determined woman. Artemisia had to overcome the “traditional attitude and psychological submission to the brainwashing and jealousy of her obvious talent.” But overcome this she did. She was prolific and her paintings spanned over four decades in locations as diverse as Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and London. She held commissions from the highest echelons of European society, including the Grand Duke of Tuscany,  Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Commercially she never had to struggle and continued to get commissions from rich and powerful till the end.

As often happens, her work has seen interpretation from prisms representing contemporary concerns and societal predilections. Feminists have viewed her paintings as an expression of defiance of male dominance and suppression imposed on the women of her time, accentuated by her own traumatic life. The choice of subjects, scenes and characters of her paintings are argued to naturally reveal her underlying angst and resentment. The risk of feminist rediscovery, however, may save her from obscurity only to conscript her into a reductive, triumphal narrative. But this would be a gross injustice to her talent, tenacity and triumphs.

The interpretive evaluation of her work merits a look free of gender lest it colours the true worth of her art and the inspiration behind it. She needs to be recognized in her own right as a fine painter who chose characters from her own convictions and courage, embellished and beautified by her worldview of gender equations. Her brushwork is bold, decisive, certain and far from timid. An impartial evaluation, considering her personality, artistic calibre and the prolific range of her ample and diverse oeuvre will no doubt find her amongst the all-time greats.

While a rare tenacity and energy eloquently defined her personality, what sets her apart and qualifies her as one of the most famous artists of the world, is her communication of a powerful personal vision – something so rare and so close to impossible that it could not be managed by any other Renaissance or Baroque woman. Like Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois or Tracey Emin, she put her life into her art.

Assessed, measured or critiqued from whatever perspective, Artemisia’s oeuvre presents a kaleidoscope of well-crafted, powerful and moving images whose richness of colour, the dominance of texture and the supremacy of theme place her at a pedestal deserving of only the best. That she was able to do so despite her gender and vulnerability adds an almost supernatural aura to her paintings, earning her a place of extraordinary standing. She deserves our commemoration, and not commiseration, for applauding what life gave her.

Roberto Longhi, an Italian critic, best summarized Artemisia as  simply “the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting, colouring, drawing, and other fundamentals.”

This article is part of a series on women through history by author Uday Kumar Varma, former secretary of the Ministry of Information & broadcasting and MSME, Government of India. An ardent proponent of gender equity, Varma writes on women through history who have excelled in their area of passion and defied conventions. You may also like to read about the woman who triggered the abolishment of slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe, activist Emmeline Pankhurst from England, the lady sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko from Russia,  the American pilot Amelia Earhart or Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg or just maybe a piece on the Spanish artist  Frida Kahlo? And you must read the story of Mata Hari– “Harlot? Oui! Mais traitoress, jamais!” ‘Courtesan! Yes; Spy, never!’

The post Painter Artemisia, failed by society saved by Art appeared first on Woman Endangered.

Frida Kahlo was a brilliant painter, but a far more exceptional woman. Her recognition today is far wider, her contribution and merit much better appreciated. But even during her lifetime she was far ahead of contemporary mould and mindset. She was, first demurely and later boldly, more than willing to break the cast and establish a uniquely extraordinary identity. And she did so with style, statement and panache!

What does pain do to humans?

Much. And more intense, more excruciating, more soul-searing the pain, greater is its impact on the human mind. Those who had a close brush with death or who had a near-death experience, once recovered, either completely overcome and win over the fear of death or they become so obsessed with the pain and prospect of death that they continue to die every moment of the remainder of their existence. This encounter, infrequent but not rare, immanently ingrained both in physiology and psychology of the person, gets permanently, indelibly engraved and etched on one’s psychic slate that alters one’s purpose of existence immutably.

Frida belonged to the former experience. Once she recovered, though she continued to physically suffer in some way or the other, she not only overcame the fear or imminence of death, she, indeed, but also became defiant and ridiculed death. This, in some way, explains her preference of themes of pain and suffering; and her derision of the same in most of her creations – vibrant in colour, deeply drenched in sad sublime pathos, aglow with luminosity, douce but disturbing at the same time. She immortalized her personal experience of chronic pain in her paintings, defining even celebrating her spirited triumph over the inflictions of fate.

Early Life

Born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón to a German father and a mestiza mother, Kahlo spent most of her childhood and adult life at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacán (today it houses the famous and popular Frida Kahlo Museum).  She was disabled by polio as a child but proved herself to be promising enough to qualify for medical school until she suffered a bus accident at the age of 18, which caused her lifelong pain and medical problems. During her recovery, she returned to her childhood interest in art with the idea of becoming an artist.

Body of Work

There are three aspects of Frida’s oeuvre that stand out. The most evident aspect is of course the underlying pain her body and soul had received early in life and which endured as an abiding aspect of her physical existence, the best expression of which gets imminently expressed in her portraits, the majority of them being her own. The second aspect is her passionate attachment to the popular culture of Mexico and of artefacts, folk art, even natural bounties of her homeland mirrored majestically in her portrayals. This aspect is so pronounced in her paintings that they are treated by many as emblematic of Mexican national tradition and culture. The third and the most striking aspect, however, remains the depiction of feminine experience and form fearlessly and boldly, stated without compromise or reservation. The first aspect dominated her initial years of creativity, while she was still unexposed to the influences obtaining in the world outside Mexico. The second aspect dominated her work after her paintings were seen and noticed in the US and France. The third aspect of a feminine perspective underlined almost all her works, at times boldly and eloquently; and at others, subtly and subliminally, even mutely. Kahlo’s unique identity as a painter makes her stand out largely owing to this permeated, suffused and yet brightly emitting scintillas of feminine sensibilities.   

In a Man’s world

Painting for Kahlo was always an exploration of questions and conundrums of identity and existence. The accident and the isolating recovery period made her desire “to begin again, painting things just as [she]saw them with [her]own eyes and nothing more.” Her corporal pain and disability and the attendant loneliness blended so beautifully with her creativity that the outcome was effortlessly brilliant, eloquent and touching.

Her passionate love affair with Diego Rivera culminating in her marriage with him transformed her in extraordinary ways. Content to be always introduced as Diego’s wife, her own identity as a painter became evident when she toured US with Diego. Diego was already a mural painter of considerable standing by then. She preferred to remain in his shadows even when she had begun producing paintings in her own distinct style. When they were in Detroit together, none of Kahlo’s work was featured in exhibitions in Detroit, though she did give an interview to the Detroit News on her art. The article that appeared, however, was condescendingly titled “Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art”.

Even much later, when she had already held more than half a dozen exhibitions, in November 1938, reviewing her exhibition in New York, Time wrote “Little Frida’s pictures … had the daintiness of miniatures, the vivid reds, and yellows of Mexican tradition and the playfully bloody fancy of an unsentimental child”.  Not very flattering, and typically patronising to a woman artist.

While Diego did encourage and mould her creativity and introduced her to his circle of friends and fellow artists, her own sensitivity and restlessness began to bloom, first during her sojourn to the US with Diego and then with the encouragement and support of Andre Breton, the founder of ‘surrealism’, to France. Breton, saw in her, the very essence of surrealism, where the dream and reality indistinguishably mingle and merge. Her exhibitions in San Francisco and Boston in US; and in Paris in France brought her recognition but more than that she began to discover her own independent identity giving her the courage and boldness to experiment with newer techniques of paintings focusing on themes that appealed and touched her sensitivities. She wanted her exhibition in France to be a success, which it was not. Yet, Louvre bought one of her paintings ‘The Frame’, the first one from a Mexican artist to be included in their collection. In her 40s and subsequently, till her death she confined herself to exhibitions in Mexico and US and to teaching. She taught at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado (“La Esmeralda“) and was a founding member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana. Her solo exhibition in 1953 preceded her death in 1954.

A woman of passion

If the marriage with Diego was a delicious denouement in her physically painful life, the divorce and reconciliation with him after one year, contributed to diversifying her portrayals of the colours and contours of life and took her expressions of sensitivity to as yet unknown and unexplored levels. It did not help matters that Diego’s wandering affections and numerous liaisons also embraced her own younger sister. The paintings made by her during this period of separation which was intensely distressing, deranging and destabilizing depict a range of emotions-helplessness, revenge, rage, and surrender against a person she could not live without. No painter had ever portrayed so effectively and poignantly and passionately, the power and hold of affection and dependence of a woman for and to a man. To draw self-images on such a volatile theme was by any standard intrepid defiance of the prevailing conventional position of women in society in Mexico then, in an unprecedented assertion both courageous and unprecedented.

In keeping with the times then, Frida was also attracted to the ideas of socialism; gender, class and race- equality and empathized with the resentment and rebellion against discrimination and injustice and exploitation of poor and underprivileged. These were the times when to do so was not only passionately popular but also deemed fashionable, even romantic. Given the highly emotional nature of Frida, her fascination and attraction to men with strong conviction and commitment to these ideologies were distinctly pronounced. This partly explains her love and fascination for and attachment to her fellow artist and painter Diego Rivera, who was not only older but could offer an intellectual fulfilment Frida had always craved.  

Surreal or Traditional?

She experimented with different techniques, such as etching and frescos. Despite the popularity of the mural in Mexican art at the time, she adopted a diametrically opposed medium, votive images or retablos– religious paintings made on small metal sheets by amateur artists to thank saints for their blessings during a calamity. Amongst the works she made in the retablo manner in Detroit are Henry Ford Hospital (1932), My Birth (1932), and Self-Portrait on the Border of Mexico and the United States (1932). Kahlo had an extensive collection of approximately 2,000 retablos, establishing Kahlo’s interest and prowess to use narrative and allegory to the limits of iconic purity.

Trees, Roots, Thorns, Hair, Eyebrows, Anatomy were some of the icons that she liberally used, as also the Aztec symbols drawn from its mythology. While her visual portrayals were bold and vivid, the underlying meanings and messages were always subtle and often ambiguous, as if revealing the conflict in her mind. Her paintings were also invariably an exercise of reconciliation between opposites. So, while there was death, there was also life side by side, if there was hope, there was despair as well, and if there was decay and destruction, there was regeneration and growth too. That surrealists like Breton and the Mexican traditionalists were simultaneously able to see powerful though conflicting messages in her paintings only illumine her genius.

While she did enjoy moments of recognition and fulfilment during her lifetime, her work was reassessed by the late 1970s by art historians and political activists. By the early 1990s, she had become not only a recognized figure in art history but also regarded as an icon for Chicanos, the feminism movement- a social and political movement, inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent. The defining aspect of her work and the most important facet of her art, however, eminently reveals her identification with La Raza, the people of Mexico, and her profound interest in its culture.

Variously described by art critics as ‘Symbolist’, a Folk Artiste, practising elements of ‘Magical Realism or New Objectivity’ and drawing elements of fantasy, naivety, and fascination with violence and death, Kahlo’s work today stands celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions and by feminists for what is seen as its undaunted and uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form. But in essence, her style developed mixed reality with surrealistic elements, often depicting pain and death. It’s a style that evolved with the spontaneity of elemental energy spurred by the diverse experiences of her life. Her oeuvre is a distillation of a synthesised amalgam of prevailing artistic traditions, indigenous movements, peer influences and above all a personal life replete with pain and an indomitable spirit of its defiance.

A feminist

Kahlo, thus, created in herself a unique and unusual woman of Art who was at once feminine, Mexican, modern, and powerful and who dared to diverge from the usual dichotomy of roles of mother/other woman allowed to females in contemporary Mexican society.

Women have often been neglected as major contributors to the history of the world either through commission or distortion. It’s a delight for us to have taken on the challenge to unearth these overlooked gems and keep relevant the stories of amazing women in history.

The author was the former Information and Broadcasting Secretary, GOI. Mr Uday Kumar Varma, serves as an esteemed jury member on the SABERA The Social and Business Enterprise Responsible Awards 2021 Jury Board.

This article is the third in the series of women in history who have excelled in their area of passion. The first being on activist Emmeline Pankhurst from England and the second on the lady sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko

The post Passion thy name is Frida Kahlo appeared first on Woman Endangered.

एक वैश्विक ब्रांड सुपर्णा चड्डा को स्वीकार करता है और उसकी सराहनीय कहानी दर्ज करता है ।वोल्वो ने सुपर्णा की कहानी को महाबलेश्वर के पहाड़ी शहर में दर्ज किया, वहाँ उन्होंने अपने लक्जरी ब्रांड वोल्वो XC90 को दुनिया की सबसे सुरक्षित कार के रूप में जाना!ऑटोकार इंडिया ने यूट्यूब पर अपने 10 लाख ग्राहकों के लिए महिला दिवस पर कहानी प्रकाशित की। सुपर्णा प्लेटफॉर्म वुमनएन्डरंग की संस्थापक भी हैं। वह इसे एक सुरक्षित दुनिया बनाने के महत्व के बारे में बोलती है और हमारे बच्चों के आनंद के लिए सुंदरता से भरी दुनिया को पीछे छोड़ने में सक्षम होने के लिए।

The post Global brand Volvo : Woman of Substance ग्लोबल ब्रांड वोल्वो: सराहनीय महिला appeared first on Woman Endangered.

When I first started taking menstrual hygiene sessions in urban slums the most common query was how to deal with pain and irregularities through periods.
I reached out to my dear friend Pragati Sharma, who not only is a yoga exponant but also a naturopath. She was kind enough to record some yoga asana along with some natural home remedies to help cope with any irregularities through periods. I have used some of these and can personally vouch for them. Please feel free to share in your own communities and continue the conversations about the natural process of a woman’s body.  One that gives her the unique ability to create life. #LetsTalkPeriod

To support our initiative contribute here.

The post पीरियड दर्द/अन्मितताओं के लिए आसन घरेलू उपचार- Yog Asan & Home remedies for Period irregularities appeared first on Woman Endangered.