World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020: All you need to know about this annual awareness day

Gayatri Datar is a popular Marathi television star known for her 2018 project, Tula Pahate Re. The actor has been extremely active on her social media since the lockdown began. She recently uploaded a post on World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020. See Gayatri Datar’s Instagram post.

• Source: Gayatri Datar Instagram

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What is World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020? 

World Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day that is celebrated on May 28. This day is celebrated to spread awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management. It awareness campaign was first initiated by the German-based NGO WASH United in 2014. Their main aim is to benefit women and girls all over the world. The 28th was specifically picked in order to acknowledge that 28 days is the average length of the menstrual cycle. 

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What is the theme for Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020?

Every year there is a specific theme to celebrate this occasion. This time, the theme for World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020 is ‘Periods in Pandemic’. The real reason to introduce this theme is to highlight that all the challenges faced by women during menstruation have just increased due to the ongoing pandemic.

UNICEF also shared a tweet about World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020. They captioned it with, “Periods don’t stop for pandemics - it’s every girl’s right to manage her period safely and with dignity. #MenstruationMatters #MHDay2020”. The Menstrual Hygiene Day Twitter account also shared a Tweet regarding the same. They wrote, “Happy #MHDay2020! Today, we will set a sign. Altogether. Add your voice to the movement by posting a photo with you wearing the Menstruation Bracelet. Share our illustrations and say it out loud: #ItsTimeForAction!!”. Here are the tweets. 

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Who started the World Menstrual Hygiene Day?

Menstrual Hygiene Day was started by the German non-profit WASH United in 2014. WASH United is the overall global coordinator of Menstrual Hygiene Day and acts as its international secretariat. WASH United’s role is:

• They are in charge of the coordination of the Menstrual Hygiene Day partner network comprising of  more than 500 social impact organisations,
• To develop the overall strategy and direction for Menstrual Hygiene Day
• To create and remove content for the annual MH Day campaign and ongoing campaigning,
• To overlook the external communication including MH Day website, social media and newsletters and representation of MH Day (at conferences and other sector events), strategic partnerships and fundraising.

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