MUHEEM PROJECTS

According to National Health Family Survey -5, 70% of mothers consider menstruation ‘dirty’ perpetuating a culture of shame and ignorance. And another hand, there was 70% increase in the incident of reproductive tract infections owing to poor menstrual hygiene. According to the study, 12.3 billion sanitary pads are disposed of every year in India. This is equivalent to 113,000 tonnes of waste. 

All these facts shows the condition of menstrual health, hygiene, culture & its impact on menstruator development and also environment. To challenge these issue at grassroots Period Mantra Program has designed, which focus to promote & strengthen the behavioural change towards sustainable menstruation. And also promotes Muheem’s special reusable cotton sanitary pad ‘Apna Pad.’Under this program, four major programs have been compiled, which are as follows:

1. Women health and menstruation 
2. Hygiene and Menstruation 
3. Gender, Sexuality and Menstruation 
4. Indian Culture on Menstruation 

 Nine year old Shivani tries to get ready for her school in the morning. She was busy to prepare her school bag but suddenly her mother ask her to wash the dishes and prepare the food. After that her father asked her to go filed with their pigs and also said that, ‘You need to learn all these household work very fast within two-three year we will arrange your marriage.’ Now going to school and get a good education become a dream for Shivani. 

Shivani belongs from Mushar community (Varanasi district). The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Mushar population as around 250,000. The Mushar literacy rate is 3% overall, and falls to 1% among women. By some estimates, as many as 85% of some villages of Mushars suffer from malnutrition and with limited access to health centres, diseases such as malaria are prevalent.

Making the dream come true of girls like Shivani Pathshala program has been design. Pathshala is an Informal Education Program for the Mushar children in rural areas. This program has been going on in Basuhan, Khargupur & Tendui (Sevapuri Block, Varanasi), Badapur (Mirzapur) & Girdhbadgawn (Bhadohi) Village's (Sevapuri Block) Mushar community. 150 children has been participated in this program. This program include  : 

1. Informal education class
2. Mainstreaming through education 
3. Promotion to go government school
4. Promoting & Strengthening leadership skill among children 

All women work but few are salaried. This quote seems particularly true in the case of India (2019-21): Only 25.4 per cent of women aged 15-49 years who worked in the last 12 months were paid in cash – says NFHS-5 report.  

Seema always dream to learn stitching work and become a professional tailor. She belongs from Muslim community where women are not allow to go out from home that’s why she didn’t went to school after fifth standard. And there was no stitching or any other skill development centre for women nearby. 

There are many women from different community who wants to learn not only stitching but also some other livelihood based skill through which they can become economically independent. 

Sui Dhaga program is step towards to develop a learning space for under resourced women from excluded community. It's a skill based education programme for rural women and girls to fight back the economic crisis. There are four Sui Dhaga center in Tendui (Sewapuri Block, Varanasi), Muslimpur (Arajiline Block, Varanasi), Badaura (Sewapuri Block, Varanasi) & Kacchwan (Mirzapuri) keeps going on which include : 

1- Handmade craft & skill development 

2- Promotes women entrepreneurship

3- Professional stitching program 

4- Eco-friendly pad making 

According to UNPF, children between 0 and 14 years constitute 25%, adolescents and young adults between 10 and 24 years constitute 24% and those between 10 and 19 years constitute 16% of the world population, as of 2022. 

However, our youths face many health and social issues that are easily preventable, and their attitude and knowledge regarding sexuality and sexual health are limited. A few studies have examined the sexual knowledge and attitude of the Indian youth and found that sexual knowledge is limited and that most hold a conservative attitude toward sexuality. This poor knowledge and attitude reflect among youth as high-risk sexual behaviors and practices.And Comprehensive Sexuality Education can helps our children to overcome this challenge.  

In this direction Positive Shape Program has been designed to promote the awareness level and behavioural change among children through their capacity building on Comprehensive Sexuality Education. In this program these following topics are included: 

1. Self-Esteem 
2. Respect 
3. Personality Development
4. Comprehensive Sexuality Education

As per 2011 census, there are 80 million teenage girls in India. Due to which even today they are victims of early marriage, school dropout and gender-based violence and discrimination. According to UNICEF (2023) report, ‘Uttar Pradesh is home to the largest population of child brides, with 36 million.

 Gender based inequality is a complex problem in a patriarchal social system, which is deeply rooted in marginalized and excluded communities. Away from opportunities for education, rights and personal development and in the absence of leadership, adolescent girls are unable to decide any vision of their life.    

The root cause of this problem is lack of young women leadership who are challenging the patriarchal system at community level.

Leading Girls program has been started by Muheem organisation to challenge this problem at community level in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh.  Leading Girl’s theory of change - On building transformative leadership for girls to be gender justice advocates worldwide, who will be self-confident, empowered individuals with a long-term aspiration. Empowering young women to transform communities. We believe that when women have equal rights and opportunities, their families and communities prosper.Its objective are:   

1. Promoting leadership skill 
2. Livelihood and skill development  
3. Organising girl's union 
4. Girls empowerment 

Shiksha is a education program to support under-resourced rural children through providing coaching and free library. Its objective are : 

1. Providing educational support 
2. Providing learning material
3. Promote education among rural children 
4. Educational development 

Muheem is also works as a resource and capacity building partner, where we provide training and workshops to community, teachers, professional and different stakeholders in different topics like :  

1. Gender, Sexuality & Rights 
2. Feminist leadership & mentoring
3. Menstrual health & hygiene
4. Women legal rights in India & many more...

This fellowship program supports young rural women’s leadership and their activism for social change. Through this fellowship, we seek to promote rural women leadership and activism especially in development sector. It include : 

1. Capacity building 
2. Leadership and Activism
3. Women Help Collective 
4. Sustainable Livelihood Program