Breaking The Barriers!

Welcome back, folks!?

It’s been around two months since I started Beyond Norms and to date, I have had an unrushed conversation with eight extremely passionate & inspirational founders who are trying to make an impact in society despite various challenges. It really feels like magic when you see an image from a far-off angle, but the moment you start zooming in you realize that to create this magic, founders are sacrificing almost every bit of theirs just to make that change in their surroundings!??

Today, I am going to take you through the stories of two extraordinary women who are breaking the barriers and catering to the two most common yet highly neglected areas of human lives - Menstruation & Mental Health.??

As we all know that these two areas are considered “taboo” in our society. No one is ready to talk openly about such important topics to their kids which creates a huge gap in communication and understanding going forward between elders and teens!?

Taboo; (n) a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.

Let’s try to understand what is menstruation and mental health??

Menstruation is a periodic discharge of blood and tissues which occurs about every 28 days. According to the Menstrual Health Landscape of India 2016, there were 355 million menstruators in India out of which 71% of the girls have no knowledge of menstruation before their first period and less than 20% of menstruators use sanitary pads - isn’t it a very surprising fact to know? Menstruation is not just a blood loss, it also includes hormonal change and immense pain for an average of five to six days.?

Ishu (Founder - Sanitree), a professional yoga practitioner who saw this gap and wanted to do something to spread awareness for such a sensitive topic. She started meeting girls and women of the rural and urban areas - where she understood what’s the problem at the core and how she can resolve it.?

The vision of Ishu is to make sure that each girl child uses a sanitary pad during the period and to provide employment to at least 100 women from rural areas so that they can be financially independent. Thus, she started making reusable sanitary pads so that every girl and woman can afford the same.? A simple and noble thought to have, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. She faced criticism and negligence from parents and principals wherein they even said that “aisi gandi baatein mat karo humare bacho se.” She even faced comments from the ecosystem players that “after you’ll get married, will you be able to continue working on this?”?

However, Ishu didn’t stop at all this and she is fully determined to make Sanitree a known name in India. She said that;

“Being an entrepreneur is tough and what kills the most is the ‘expectations’. Being raw doesn’t work out every time, because everyone expects founders to be professional, number-oriented & marketers. Sometimes it becomes a lot to take on! But one has to always remember that it’s okay, whatever you’re doing and wherever you’re it’s okay!”?

Ishu is unstoppable and determined to work toward breaking the taboo and normalizing menstruation in our society!??

Another such taboo is Mental Health, which includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we feel, act and think. This is as prevalent in teens as in Adults.? According to the Improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health in India 2019 report, it is estimated that about 9.8 million Indians aged between 13 to 17 years suffer from serious mental illness, the number can be greater if considering the entire age spectrum of childhood and adolescence! - astonishing, isn’t it?

But when it comes to mental health we get to listen to the most common phrases of all times;

“Arre aisa kuch nahi hota”, “thoda bahar ghoom fir lo sab thik ho jayega” or “family ke sath chizein share karne se yeh sab nahi hota.”

But thankfully after the pandemic, people have somewhere started normalizing mental health and seeing a mental health professional. But still, that percentage is very minimal. Growing up no one teaches us how to take failures, how to manage relationships, and how to handle uncomfortable situations.?

Madhavi (Founder - ThatMate) is on a mission to create a safe space for teens where they can express what they feel and want to spread mental health awareness among them. Being the victim of body shaming herself during her teenage, it took her a lot of time and therapies to get out of that phase. She wanted to create something exceptional that helps teenagers to understand the hormonal changes which are happening to them as well as normalize mental health issues. But still, rather than questions on how she is planning to solve it, the questions are always around monetization, revenue model, etc! As important as these questions are, it is also important to focus on the problem that the founder is trying to solve and the number of users who would be benefitted from this solution.?

Despite various challenges, Madhavi has a strong urge to bring a change and believes that;

“The entrepreneurial journey is like a marathon contained with some sprints in between, it’s a long and lonely journey - because no one will understand what you’re trying to build, of course, you’ll feel an adrenaline rush, you’ll lose sanity, you’ll fail but you’ll stand up - one thing for sure that you’ll definitely love the journey!”?

Madhavi is definitely on the way to creating wonders which will help teens to become more responsible adults going forward.?

Breaking the barriers is not just about working towards neglected areas, it is also related to the women pursuing entrepreneurship as well! Let me show you some numbers;

According to various reports, only 14% of women are following entrepreneurship. Also, according to the Makers India Report 2020,? between January 2018 to June 2020, only 1.43% of women raised funding for their ventures. Ofcourse, there are a lot of schemes and efforts put in by the government to encourage “women entrepreneurship” but still they have to face family negligence and the system's questions about how they can handle business or is it just a mere hobby!?

They have to break the barriers of various thought processes and prove themselves at each step!?

“Change is lying in the far-off land, but slowly and steadily it is on its way!”

I would like to mention a very phenomenal quote by Maya Angelou;?

“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women”?

Like Ishu and Madhavi, there are many more women like them who are breaking barriers and working toward bridging the gaps in societal thought processes to bring the difference around their surroundings through their exceptional work and establishing an example for all the little girls out there.?

See you next week, till then, let’s break the taboo and invisible barriers of society that have been wrapped around us for ages.?

About Beyond Norms:

Beyond Norms intends to be the platform that captures the ‘human’ aspects of the startup journey. We desire to make the ecosystem inclusive & provide justness to each individual’s story who took the courage to walk down the road full of challenges and left the comfort behind just to create an impact on society.?

If you're an entrepreneur or a stakeholder I am happy to talk with you about how we can explore synergies!

Follow us on Instagram - instagram.com/beyond.norms/

Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/aashna-shah-08522716a

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