IRS officer Amanpreet distributed more than 11 lakh pads in 17 states

IRS officer Amanpreet who is Joint Commissioner of Income Tax. She was inspired to distribute sanitary napkins by her friend Priyal Bharadwaj, who uses her personal savings to buy pads and distribute them to underprivileged women in the Noida areas.

Amanpreet has so far distributed more than 11 lakh pads in 17 states.

Amanpreet's friend Priyal Bhardwaj, a fashion designer, was distributing pads to women working in brick kilns in Noida through the Sangini Saheli Trust during the lockdown. She also included Amanpreet in this work. Amanpreet was very impressed by Priyal's work of distributing menstrual health and hygiene-related information and pads to women.

Amanpreet was quite surprised by the words of the women that even though they were working, instead of buying a pad for Rs.20, they would use cloth during menstruation. Instead of buying pads, those women would find it appropriate to buy other essential household items because their elders had taught them the same.

During her journey with Priyal, Amanpreet realized that more than 50% of women do not use sanitary napkins at all. Due to social taboos and ignorance one has to go through unhealthy menstruation.

Amanpreet was so impressed that she started a new journey. Along with Priyal, she also included 2010 IRS batchmates and friends in her contact list. She created a WhatsApp group to extend her help to various areas and was pleased to provide assistance. And soon, the pads were distributed to Bhopal Palwal Sangrur and more and more places.

After Cyclone Amphan in Bengal, Amanpreet sought help from IRS Association and Aayakar Khel Khelav Manoranjan Club to help the people affected by the disaster. Two of her batchmates Atul Pandey and Nivedita Prasad went to remote areas of Amphan-affected Sundarbans to distribute ration and sanitary napkins.

Along with Amanpreet, an Urdu teacher from Jammu also collaborated in her work, who is in his Facebook contact and is working in the Covid sample collection department. Who, along with the women of the District Health Center, did the work of distribution of pads in the Doda district and small villages nearby.

After this success, Amanpreet decided that she would now move forward in remote areas where no NGO has access.

Organized camps to distribute ration, masks, protection kits as well as pads in Punjab. Then her attention was also attracted to the jail inmates. Using her late mother's contacts in the prison department, she managed to distribute pads to all 20 women prisoners in Punjab and 14 women prisoners in Arunachal Pradesh.

In Delhi, she provided pads and ration to the sex workers of GB Nagar. She also extended her help to the people who were affected by the massive fire in Tughlaqabad at the end of May.

Various Rotary Clubs, and Police Departments have joined in their efforts to provide supplies. Walmart also joined their campaign to distribute pads in remote areas such as Beed in Maharashtra and Gird in Jharkhand.

When she gave her help in a village in Rajasthan, then someone kept a pad along with the ration packet, then people threw the ration saying that it has been made dirty, and they will not take it.

In Rajasthan's Johri village, she got the support of shooters Dadi Chandro Tomar and Prakash Tomar. But people asked them to leave only pads and distribute only masks and ration. The people of Daus village also said the same.

Then Amanpreet organized camps related to menstrual health and hygiene. All the information related to menstruation was given to the doctors. And it was explained to everyone that a pad is not an unhealthy thing but necessary.

Amanpreet believes that only education and awareness can get rid of such taboos.

Salute to Amanpreet and her campaign. It is true that “Education is such a powerful weapon, using which you can change the world”.