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May 23, 2025
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योग अपनाएं, कोरोना भगाएं

By
Rahuldeo Sharma
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कोरोना संक्रमण को लेकर पूरे देश में भय का माहौल बना हुआ है। ऐसे में लोग कोरोना से बचने के लिए अलग-अलग उपाय कर रहे हैं। लोग कई प्रकार के नुस्खे अपनाने के साथ-साथ शरीर की रोग प्रतिरोधक क्षमता को बढ़ाने के लिए पुरानी परंपराओं की ओर भी लौट रहे हैं। इसमें सबसे महत्वपूर्ण है योग। योग के नियमित अभ्यास से शरीर स्वस्थ तो रहता ही है साथ-साथ हमारी प्रतिरोधक क्षमता को मजबूत बनाने में काफी मददगार साबित होता है। योगासन से यह खांसी, जुखाम, वायरल बुखार, कमर दर्द, सांस लेने की तकलीफ आदि बीमारियां भी दूर भागती हैं। योग करने वाले व्यक्तियों में स्फूर्ति व ऊर्जा का संचार होने के साथ-साथ शरीर के नस नाड़ियों की शुद्धि भी होती है। साथ ही रोग से लड़ने की क्षमता भी मिलती है।

कोरोना काल में बढ़ी योग को लेकर जागरूकता

जहां अभी तक कोरोना की दवाई को लेकर सिर्फ रिसर्च ही जारी है, जहां वैक्सीन को लेकर अभी तक सिर्फ शोध ही चल रहा है वही भारत की पुरानी परंपरा दुनिया को कोरोना से लड़ने के लिए एक रास्ता दिखा रही है। कोरोना काल में आयुर्वेदिक औषधियों का इस्तेमाल कर लोग काढ़ा से अपना इम्युनिटी बूस्ट कर रहें है तो वहीं कोरोना के कारण लोगों में योग को लेकर जागरूकता भी बढ़ी है। अपने आप को स्वस्थ रखने के लिए लोग इन चीजों पर विशेष ध्यान दे रहे हैं।

21 जून को है विश्व योग दिवस

आज विश्व योग दिवस है। हर साल पुरी दुनिया 21 जून को विश्व योग दिवस मनाती है। लेकिन क्या आपको पता है कि योग को दुनियाभर में चर्चित भारत ने ही किया है। साल 2015 में ही विश्व योग दिवस की शुरूआत हो गई थी। भारत के प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने संयुक्त राष्ट्र को योग से 11 दिसंबर 2014 को अवगत कराया था। इसी समय विश्वभर में योग को पहचान दिलाने को लेकर भारत की तरफ से कवायद तेज कर दी गई थी। अंत में जाकर संयुक्त राष्ट्र के 193 देशों के सदस्यों ने योग दिवस मनाने को लेकर प्रस्ताव को मजूरी दे दी थी। आंकड़ों की बात करें तो साल 2015 में जब पहली बार विश्व योग दिवस मनाया गया उस दौरान लगभग 10 करोड़ लोगों ने दुनियाभर में योग किया था। साथ ही इसमें से लगभग 3 करोड़ लोगों ने अकेले अमेरिका में योगाभ्यास किया था।

कोरोना की वजह से लोग घरों में कर रहें है योग

कोरोना महामारी की छाया इस बार योग दिवस पर भी देखने को मिलेगी। कोरोना के कारण योग दिवस पर इस बार कोई बड़ा आयोजन नहीं हुआ और इसकी थीम रखी गई है ‘घर पर योग, परिवार के साथ योग’। आयुष मंत्रालय के मुताबिक इस वर्ष योग दिवस पर सामूहिक रूप से किसी स्थान पर योग करने के बजाय लोग अपने घरों में एक तय समय पर योग करेंगे।

इन योगाभ्यासों से कोरोना से लड़ा जा सकता है

दरअसल कोरोना का संक्रमण उन लोगों को जल्दी अपना शिकार बना सकता है, जिनकी इम्युन पावर बहुत कमजोर होती है। आमतौर पर होने वाले संक्रमण में भी अगर किसी व्यक्ति की इम्युनिटी कमजोर होती है, तो वह जल्दी बीमार हो जाता है। ऐसे में योग इम्युन पावर बढ़ाता है, तो आईये जान लेतें है कुछ आसन
कपालभाति एक प्रचलित प्राणायाम है। इस प्राणायाम को करने की प्रक्रिया में सांस लेते हैं और छोड़ते हैं। रोजाना करीब पांच मिनट तक इस प्रणायाम को करने से आपकी रोग प्रतिरोधक क्षमता मजबूत होगी और आप किसी भी प्रकार के संक्रमण से बचे रहेंगे।
कैसे करें –
सबसे पहले एक योग मैट बिछा लें।
अब इस पर बैठ जाएं।
सांस लीजिए और पेट पर जोर देते हुए तेजी से सांस को छोड़ें।
प्रतिरोधक क्षमता मजबूत करने के लिए इस प्राणायाम को आप रोज सुबह और शाम को पांच मिनट तक करें।

अनुलोम विलोम से भी मजबूत होती है इम्युनिटी

अनुलोम विलोम से आपको सामान्य रूप से होने वाली सर्दी खांसी और जुकाम तक नहीं होती है। दरअसल अनुलोम विलोम प्रणायाम को करने से श्वसन क्रिया बेहतर हो जाती है। इसके अलावा डॉक्टरी रिसर्च के मुताबिक यह भी बताया जा चुका है कि इससे आपके शरीर की इम्युनिटी काफी मजबूत होती है।

कैसे करें –

एक शांत वातावरण में योग मैट या किसी भी आसन पर बैठ जाएं।
अब अपने बाएं हाथ के अंगूठे से, बायीं नाक के छिद्र को बंद करके, दायीं नाक के छिद्र से सांस लें।
अब दायीं नाक के छिद्र को अपनी एक उंगली से बंद करें और बायीं नाक के छिद्र को खोलकर, इसके जरिए सांस छोड़ें।
दूसरी ओर से भी इस प्रक्रिया को दोहराएं।
कोरोना वायरस के संक्रमण से बचे रहने के लिए इस प्राणायाम को रोज सुबह करीब पांच मिनट तक करें।

भस्त्रिका प्राणायाम भी कोरोना को रखेगा दूर

भस्त्रिका प्राणायाम के जरिए भी आप कोरोना वायरस से संक्रमित होने से बचे रहेंगे। भस्त्रिका प्रणायाम को करने से शरीर की कोशिकाएं स्वस्थ बनी रहती हैं और श्वसन क्रिया से जुड़ी कोई भी बीमारी आपको नहीं होगी। साथ ही साथ आपकी इम्युनिटी भी मजबूत रहेगी। इसके कारण आप कोरोना वायरस के संक्रमण से बचे रहेंगे भी।

कैसे करें

सबसे पहले किसी योग मैट पर बैठ जाएं।
अब एक गहरी सांस लें।
अब पेट पर जोर देते हुए सांस छोड़ें।
इस प्रणायाम को करीब 3-5 मिनट तक करें।
आप इसे सुबह और शाम दोनों समय कर सकते हैं।
प्राणायाम को आप रोज सुबह खुद तो करें ही, साथ ही अपनी फैमिली को भी इसे करने के लिए कहें। इससे न केवल आप कोरोना के संक्रमण में आने से बचेंगे बल्कि भविष्य में भी आप कई बीमारियों से बचे रहेंगे।
युगों से चला आ रहा है योग की परंपरा, जिसे दुनिया ने अपनाया
भारत में योग को निरोगी रहने की करीब पांच हजार वर्ष पुरानी मानसिक, शारीरिक और आध्यात्मिक पद्धति के रूप में मान्यता प्राप्त है, जो भारतीयों की जीवनचर्या का अहम हिस्सा है। सही मायनों में योग भारत के पास प्रकृति प्रदत्त ऐसी अमूल्य धरोहर है, जिसका भारत सदियों से शारीरिक और मानसिक लाभ उठाता रहा है, लेकिन कालांतर में इस दुर्लभ धरोहर की अनदेखी का ही नतीजा है कि लोग तरह-तरह की बीमारियों के मकड़जाल में जकड़ते गए। वैसे तो स्वामी विवेकानंद ने भी अपने शिकागो सम्मेलन के भाषण में सम्पूर्ण विश्व को योग का संदेश दिया था लेकिन कुछ वर्षों पूर्व योग गुरु स्वामी रामदेव द्वारा योग विद्या को घर-घर तक पहुंचाने के बाद ही इसका व्यापक प्रचार-प्रसार संभव हो सका और आमजन योग की ओर आकर्षित होते गए। देखते ही देखते कई देशों में लोगों ने इसे अपनाना शुरू किया। आज की भागदौड़ भरी जीवनशैली में योग का महत्व कई गुना बढ़ गया है।
योग के गुणों को देखते हुए आईये विश्व योग दिवस के ख़ास मौके पर प्रण करें कि हर दिन कम से कम एक घंटा योग करेंगे और निरोगी रहेंगे।

International Yoga Day 2020 – How does Yoga Help Calm the Mind?

By
Mpower - The Centre
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By Bharti Gitay
The link between mental health and physical health is often misunderstood. They’re often thought of as separate entities, but the two go hand in hand. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. According to Dr Michael Craig Miller, professor at Harvard Medical School, exercise and physical activity can be as effective in treating some depressive symptoms as therapy or medication.
Amid growing concerns about the global spread of COVID-19, which has exacerbated mental health concerns globally. According to WHO, over 90 million Indians, or 7.5 per cent of the country’s population of 1.3 billion, experience from some form of mental health concerns. India faces a significant gap between the prevalence of mental health issues among the population and the availability and effectiveness of mental health care in providing adequate treatment. This discrepancy results in structural stigma toward mental illness which in turn is one of the main reasons for the persistence of the treatment gap, whereas societal factors such as religion, education, and family structures play critical roles.  Due to this and other reasons, many individuals dealing with mental health issues turn to alternative approaches like yoga. Research shows that doing exercise influences the release and uptake of feel-good chemicals such as endorphins and dopamine in the brain, helping you feel good in the short term. Low-intensity exercise sustained over time can promote the production of neurotrophic proteins. These proteins cause nerve cells to grow and form new connections and as a result can improve brain function, making you feel better in the long term.
Yoga means “to unite” in Sanskrit. Uniting mind, body and individual and collective being is the essence of this ancient practice. Yoga provides individuals with the opportunity to concentrate on their body and mind through their breath, which can help alleviate tension and stress. Stress creates cortisol and that builds up in our system, making it difficult to metabolise them. We can address this is by putting other chemicals in our body, a perfect chemical that can address them is endorphins, which generates with exercise. As an exercise, yoga is a natural way to increase endorphins and serotonin production. According to the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, recommend that serotonin production plays a role in the treatment of depression. Also, serotonin is believed to play a major role in happiness and can be generated with regular yoga practice.
In this fast pace life, we are being driven to distraction by our own increasingly sophisticated and seductively addictive technologies. We are being enslaved by our impulses to look outside of ourselves for affirmation that we’re OK, or that there’s something more interesting than now that we should be checking because maybe this moment’s not good enough.
“We’re actually imprisoned by what we’re unconscious of. Not a moment goes by in which we don’t like this rather than that or want this more than that suggest the American Professor, Jon Kabat-Zinn
Yoga incorporates several techniques for taming the monkey mind One is breathwork, each breath is tied inextricably to the present moment, you are not breathing in the past or the future, but only right now. And, Yoga is a physical exercise that involves different body poses, breathing techniques, and meditation. It may help with depression and symptoms, such as difficulty concentrating or loss of energy.
Yoga as a form of exercise focuses mainly on deep, controlled breathing. This allows to clear the mind and strengthen the body-mind connection. Additionally, breathing is one of many components of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which also includes your heart rate, digestive system, and more. The vagus nerve runs from the brain all the way down through to the opening of the diaphragm to the gut, and its purpose is to send signals to adjust the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system that form the ANS. This positively impacts on heart rate, digestion, and general feelings of being calm and centred.
Yoga is also especially helpful because of its gentle, calming, and fluid nature. Each pose is flexible, so people of all levels can practice and can gradually build the practice.
Bharti Gitay MpowerBharti Gitay is Psychologist & Outreach Associate at Mpower – The Centre, Mumbai. She is a compassionate Mental Health professional dedicated to providing effective and empathetic care. She is passionate about mindfulness practice with individuals and families to help live a meaningful and authentic life. She is a trained ACT therapist.
Views of the author are personal and do not necessarily represent the website’s views.
To read more stories by Mpower, click here.

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Mondelez India donates over 140 tonnes of goodies for Covid-19 relief

By
The CSR Journal
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Mondelez India, the makers and bakers of some of India’s favourite snacking brands – Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Bournvita, Oreo, announced an additional relief contribution of over 70 tonnes of products to support relief workers and the migrant population. The company in total has donated over 140 tonnes of chocolates, biscuits and beverages to India FoodBanking Network (IFBN) across 20 cities. Of this, MFD brand Cadbury Bournvita will be directed to hospitals.
The company is also donating dry ration kits to support over 8600 families in communities around its factory locations in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Ophira Bhatia, Director – Corporate & Government Affairs, India, Mondelēz International, said, “We are proud that globally Mondelēz International has donated well over $20 million in cash and in-kind donations to advance Covid-19 pandemic relief efforts surpassing our $15 million global commitment. As a company that has had close to 75 years of commitment to India, we are providing our much-loved products – that are safe, easy to consume and tasty – to workers in the frontline who are striving to bring this pandemic under control, and migrant workers travelling back to their homes. We also continue to support the communities around our manufacturing locations with dry rations to tide them over these difficult times. It is heartening to see every part of our business – our colleagues, our brands also pitch in to support Covid-19 relief efforts.”
The employees of Mondelez India have also donated 110,000 meals to the poor and needy through the Akshaya Patra Foundation, through employee giving. Brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk continue to live their purpose by launching a limited-edition Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Thank You’ bar, in recognition of the generous spirit of the country’s unsung heroes during these difficult times. The company has committed part proceeds from sales of these special chocolate bars towards health insurance policies of the daily wage earners, via a partnership with Nirmana, an NGO that works with the unorganised sector.
As part of this, here is the consolidated list of efforts undertaken by the company in India:
– Mondelez India donated 1,00,00 masks, 45 sanitizer cans of 5 litters and 3,000 sanitizer bottles of 50 ml across hospitals and police stations in Mumbai to support the Maharashtra state government in this fight against Covid-19.
– To provide aid at local factory locations of Induri, Sri City, Baddi & Malanpur, the company distributed about 1,800 relief kits – consisting of critical masks and sanitizers and some snack products like Chocolates, Biscuits and Tang.
– Donated 650 kgs Bourvita biscuits and 350 kgs Bournvita to St. Jude India Child Care Centres to help children undergoing cancer treatment
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.

Thane Municipal Corporation Partners with EdIndia to Digitally Skill 8000 Teachers

By
The CSR Journal
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Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has partnered with EdIndia Foundation, to bolster the capacity of its 8000 teachers spread across 850 odd schools across the district. As an initial scheme of the partnership, Thane Municipal Corporation and EdIndia Foundation hosted a 2-day Online Teacher Training, for 8000 teachers to help them adapt to the new technology-driven teaching model in the post-COVID19 scenario.
As the COVID-19 pandemic advances, with no sight of an immediate solution to stop the spread, there is uncertainty on when the schools will reopen. This not only disrupts the continuity of learning for the 250 million children in India but also endangers their psychosocial and mental wellbeing. TMC invited experts in the 2-day Online Teacher Training programme to sensitise teachers around concerns such as mental health and child protection. The online training which will be streamed live on Youtube and Pragyan app will also prepare teachers to adopt different technology tools and platforms in their transition to online schooling for continuity of learnings.
Acknowledging that teachers require support, Mr. Manish Joshi, Deputy Commissioner Thane Municipal Corporation, said “The pandemic has forced us into remote learning which has technical, pedagogical and instructional challenges. I am glad that we could forge a partnership with EdIndia. With their expertise, we can now strengthen teachers’ capacity on technology and better classroom delivery. The whole event is the brainchild of Mr. Rajesh Kankal Education officer of Thane Municipal corporation who felt that to conduct classes, keep students engaged and continue teaching in an effective way, a re-orientation on online pedagogies and tools is required”.
Sonakshi Agarwal, CEO of EdIndia Foundation, while appreciating the opportunity to aid this cause, said. “We are in a precarious situation due to the pandemic, and it is imperative that we all stakeholders come together, work side by side on all our children’s education, protection and well-being. The training will capacitate teachers to embrace technology, nurture child well-being and prepare for post-COVID-19 challenges and innovations”.
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.

CSR: NTT Ltd. supports VMinclusion Taara to upskill women in STEM for free

By
The CSR Journal
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Upskilling CSR programme VMinclusion Taara aims to help women restart their careers after a break. It recently reached a new milestone of 6,000 registrations. The programme trains women in the latest digital transformation technologies which include Cloud Management & Automation, Data Center Virtualization, Networking and Digital Workplaces is now supported by more industry partners with the latest addition of NTT Ltd.
One of VMware’s leading partners in Asia Pacific and Japan, NTT Ltd. has come forward to support the programme in India, and create greater awareness for improving female representation for women in tech. The company will also consider evaluating talent coming from VMinclusion Taara programme to help more women return to work.
“India has one of the highest number of STEM graduates globally and yet the number of women dropping out of work is staggering. I am thrilled that industry leaders such as NTT Ltd. are coming forth to help us in supporting women,” said Duncan Hewett, senior vice president & GM, APJ, VMware.
“We believe that diversity in the technology sector is key to our success. We consider it our responsibility to encourage and ensure women who have had to leave the industry, are given every opportunity to return. We are delighted to be a part of the VMinclusion Taara journey, to help women build skills in the latest technology trends. VMinclusion Taara provides the training for free with flexible timelines,” said John Lombard, CEO, Asia Pacific at NTT Ltd.
The courses listed in this STEM programme are free of cost. Keeping in mind that the women participating in Taara may have other life commitments to attend to, all the training is delivered online. Any woman, who is a citizen of India and residing in the territorial jurisdiction of India can join the VMinclusion Taara programme to retrain in the latest digital transformation technologies and become a VMware certified professional. Some experience or education in the field of Information Technology (IT) is preferred. However, this is not a limiting criteria for a woman who wants to learn and build a new career in IT.
Several key organizations like State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Cognizant have supported this programme and will be open to considering women being certified on VMware’s digital transformation solutions for relevant openings within their organisations. Women who want to register for this programme can do so at VMinclusion Taara page.
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.

Reversing Land Use Change to Prevent Future Pandemics

By
Hency Thacker
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United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has said that Land Use Change, prepares the ground for zoonoses like Covid-19, and it should be reversed. Land Use Change reduces the physical distance between animals and humans, which increases the interaction and conflict between the two. These interactions often result in zoonoses like Covid-19.

What is Land Use Change?

Land Use Change is a process which transforms the natural landscape by direct land use by humans in the form of settlements, commercial and economic uses and forestry activities. This impacts the overall environment in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation and climate change.

Effects of Land Use Change on Environment and Ecology

Land Use change is a major factor in CO2 (carbon dioxide) atmospheric concentration, making it a contributor to global climate change. In fact, it represents almost 25% of total global emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), over 70% of all-natural, ice-free land in the world is affected by human use. This could further rise to 90% by 2050.
Land degradation affects 3.2 billion people worldwide caused as a result of Land Use Change. Ecosystem services such as forest, agriculture, grassland tourism etc. worth $10.6 trillion are lost due to land degradation annually. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, by 2050, over 500-million-hectare area of new agricultural land will be needed to meet the global food demand.

Why do humans change the land?

Despite understanding the consequences, humans continue to change the land for the following reasons:
Population Growth – Fast growing population and the consequent high pressure on resources have an adverse effect on the existing natural resources of the land area. The increasing food insecurity has led the farmers to further encroach upon the forested areas for agriculture. Mangroves have been cleared to construct residential and commercial buildings in urban areas, to accommodate the influx of people from rural areas in search of work.
Image by Szabolcs Molnar from Pixabay Forest Resources – Continuous and exhaustive thinning of forestry resources for diverse uses, particularly for construction, firewood and agricultural tools led to the degradation of forest cultivated land. This causes habitat loss for animals living in these forests and increases the incidents of human-animal conflicts which more often than not end up causing casualties among the animals.

Reversing the Land use change

According to a report by IPCC on land use, increased food production, improved cropland management, livestock management, agroforestry, increased soil organic carbon content and reduced post-harvest losses would help in ecosystem conservation and land restoration. These management practices could deliver up to $1.4 trillion in increased crop production.
Additionally, in order to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (Sustainable Development Goal target 15.3), additional commitments in the land-use sector, namely to restore and rehabilitate 12 million hectares of degraded land per year could help close the emissions gap by up to 25% in the year 2030. The restoration of these areas as part of building back better to avoid future zoonoses would bring other crucial benefits, particularly mitigating climate change.
The urgency to slow down and reverse Land Use Change cannot be overrated as land is a critical component of biodiversity. The Land Use Sector is critical to achieving the aim of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2°C.
The only way to achieve it is through responsible land governance which is the key to provide an enabling environment for ecosystem restoration, biodiversity protection, land use-based adaptation and for improving the livelihoods of many small-scale farmers. It is important that the guidelines to prevent and reverse Land Use Change is accepted and adopted by not just the governments, but also corporate houses, to protect the world from future pandemics.

Top Menstrual Hygiene CSR Initiatives in India

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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Why is a natural bodily process a topic of shame for women and teenage girls? Access to sanitary care products was hard; the COVID-19 pandemic has made it all the more difficult, especially for Indian women in the villages. Menstruation is a taboo word and various rituals demonising the natural female process culturally bind women, negating their positive contributions and ostracising them. A number of menstrual hygiene CSR initiatives are addressing this.
According to estimates and surveys gleaned on Menstrual Hygiene Day, of the nearly 36 crore menstruating women in India, only 6 to 7 crore have access to sanitary pads. 71% of them have no knowledge of menstruation before their first blood and 82% use alternatives such as rags, old cloth, hay, sand or ash. About 6.30 crore adolescent girls live in houses without toilet facilities, and 88% adolescent girls are unaware of the health implications that could occur due to poor menstrual hygiene.
It is the total lack of hygiene during menstruation due to unavailability of sanitary napkins or clean towels and cloth that is a matter of concern. Girls drop out of school once they start having their periods. Leaves, mud, ash, dirty cloth used for sanitary purposes lead to urinary tract infections, fever and anaemia. These menstrual hygiene CSR initiatives create awareness, destigmatise the monthly phenomenon and, in some cases, generate employment.

Procter & Gamble’s Mobileshaala

Considering its the parent company for popular sanitary care brand Whisper, it seems like a natural fit for Procter & Gamble to invest in CSR programmes for MHM (menstrual hygiene management). Whisper began the journey to normalize menstruation in India 3 decades back; it was the first brand to show a sanitary pad, and the first to mention the word ‘periods’ in advertising.
School closures due to the ongoing pandemic could lead to increased drop-out rates, disproportionately affecting adolescent girls. While closing down schools temporarily might help contain the virus, it could have a permanent effect on the future of many – especially marginalised girls, who are now even more vulnerable to dropping out of school in the absence of structured education. Uninterrupted learning is of utmost importance for these girls.
Moving forward with their #KeepGirlsInSchool movement, Whisper launched ‘Mobileshaala’ in May 2020, an initiative to provide free education while schools across the country remain closed. It is a phone-based learning system that gives free access to curriculum-based education modules on key subjects like English, Science and menstrual hygiene education.
whisper mobileshaala
Mobileshaala is among menstrual hygiene CSR initiatives that take education of adolescent girls into account
It is startling that when girls hit puberty, one out of five girls starts missing school, leading to her eventually dropping out and we do not even notice. To bridge this gap, Whisper initiated the #KeepGirlsInSchool movement earlier this year to empower girls with menstrual hygiene education and as a major step towards achieving the brand’s vision of 100% menstrual hygiene in India. The first phase of #KeepGirlsInSchool initiative has helped keep 50 lakh girls in school.
P&G is renowned for taking menstrual taboos head-on. Back in 2014, Whisper’s widely acclaimed award-winning #TouchThePickle, was one of the first campaigns where any brand or institution in India, took on the taboos surrounding periods at a mass scale. The campaign not only sparked conversations on period taboos but also drove acceptance of this conversation among the older generation which is supposedly the most immersed in these deep-rooted traditions and taboos. Since then, the brand has come up with many campaigns such as #LikeAGirl, #SitImproper, #MeriLifeMereRules, that break societal taboos on periods.
Whisper has pledged to reach five crore girls across India with its ‘Mother Daughter Menstrual Health and Hygiene Programme’ by the end of 2022. The pledge was made at the ‘Need to Break Silence and Build Awareness’ event by ASSOCHAM in 2019. As a part of this pledge, Whisper will now be reaching out to more than 40,000 schools to increase awareness about menstrual hygiene. The brand claims to have already educated over 2.5 crore girls about menstrual hygiene since its inception in 1995.

Tata Water Mission initiative

The Tata Water Mission promotes safe and effective menstrual hygiene management in around 900 villages, covering a stakeholder base of over 200,000 women and 45,000 men of all ages over a period of three years. The programme seeks to build a socio-cultural environment that is conducive for girls and women to manage menstruation with dignity and without any fear.
The initiative began with the mapping of existing knowledge, attitude and practices within target communities. It tapped local implementation partners and self-help group networks to disseminate the Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) at the school and community level. Sensitisation workshops and training of frontline health and sanitation workers have helped achieve demonstration and scale.
Tata Trusts MHM Sakhi
Women are asked to imagine their feelings of shame associated with periods and throw it into a Bag of Shame, as part of a game in Tata Water Mission’s menstrual hygiene programme
Under this programme, women are provided access to clean absorbents and a basket of related products for safe and hygienic management of menstruation. This is done through the encouragement and aggregation of a retail model, involving the identification, training and mentoring of retail entrepreneurs, and triggering consumer-led demand of such products.
Women are provided with safe and convenient facilities equipped with soap and water, offering privacy for changing absorbents. Facilities are also provided for the safe and effective disposal of waste products. Small-scale pilots on composting and incineration are also planned besides the exploration of a micro-entrepreneur model for collection, transportation and treatment of waste.
Phase I of the MHM programme covers the states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra, while phase II will extend the programme to the states of Telangana, Odisha, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram. Partnering with the Trust on this programme are the companies Livinguard Technologies Pvt Ltd, Eco Femme, Aakar Innovations, Uger, Boondh and Saral Designs.

Kent RO’s Kadam Sapno Ki Aur

On International Women’s Day in 2017, Sunita Gupta, Director, Kent RO Systems Limited, decided she was going to help women in far-flung villages. She broke the taboo around the subject of menstruation by speaking unhesitatingly about it to both, women and men.
Gradually inhibitions dropped as she took the lead to set up a unit run by women and supported by men for packing menstruation cloth and traditional underwear (langot) to women and girls among remote communities. The softest cotton material is procured and handstitched and packed at these units. The cloth pads thus created is reusable and washable and hygienic.
Members of Kent Foundation (the CSR arm of Kent RO Group) sat down on March 20 with women in the unit and made their first batch of handmade sanitary towels as a sign of commitment. The first recipient of 600 packs of 15 cloth pads was The Grameen Foundation, Jehanabad Bihar, whose Director Birender Sharma carried out the campaign with the help of volunteers from nonprofit YUVATI (Youth Under Voluntary Action for Transportation), which works in the field of girl child education.
Kent Foundation and Rotary International District 3011 signed an MoU for implementation of menstrual hygiene education and awareness programme – Kadam Sapno Ki Aur. The drive is likely to benefit over 1.20 lakhs women and girls in rural India. In an endeavour to educate and make women and adolescent girls aware of this issue, Kent Foundation has adopted a multipronged approach to educate and provide them sanitary napkins. The foundation has chosen three critical pathways:
(a) social mobilization, education & awareness;
(b) creating in house infrastructure to fulfill the demand of sanitary napkins and
(c) supplying these sanitary napkins free of cost to those section of society who have not any access and means to buy the sanitary napkins.

Niine Movement

The Niine Movement is an ambitious 5-year plan that began in 2018. It aims to tackle the taboos associated with menstruation by engaging all genders and ages to step forward and join hands to promote the importance of menstrual hygiene awareness.
Niine movement
Niine movement is among the most effective menstrual hygiene CSR initiatives in India
Understanding the need for collective effort to change mindsets, the Niine Movement intends to use its convening power to engage multi-sector groups in India – from governments, corporates and the NGO community – to sustain not only a discussion but encourage affirmative action on addressing menstrual hygiene management. The Niine Movement is a journey for change to increase the number of sanitary napkin users in India from 18% to 82%. To achieve its vision, the Niine Movement’s theory of change adopts a three-pronged approach by:
a) Educating girls, women, boys and men of good menstrual hygiene practices.
b) Enrolling citizens and existing menstrual hygiene product users in a supportive, taboo-free environment to create an open forum for discussion and deliberation.
c) Enhancing the sanitation sector of India by providing the best quality menstrual hygiene products at appropriate prices.
The movement’s parent company – Niine Sanitary Napkins – has been working for the past three months not only to ensure supplies to stores, but also with Government organisations, NGOs and individuals across the country to provide safety and menstrual hygiene for women who can’t access or afford the necessity affected by COVID -19 lockdown.
The company has helped with subsidized or free distribution of more than 14 lakh pads during the lockdown, in partnership with Government bodies and several voluntary groups. Sanitary napkin supplies have been distributed by Uttar Pradesh and Telangana State Governments, FICCI-Flo, police departments in Punjab and Haryana, Health departments in Delhi; with several more state-run organizations stepping up to need for supporting menstrual hygiene.
Essar Foundation, OXFAM India, and several other NGOs have helped in distribution across Jharkhand, Bihar, Mumbai and affected areas of NCR. Most of these organisations have undertaken direct distribution to each and every girl and woman in need in their respective areas. Police forces in several states have had their women police officers, going door-to-door to distribute, and in other cases, volunteers and ASHA workers have organised distribution directly to women, making NIINE movement among the most effective menstrual hygiene CSR initiatives right now.

CSR News: #PlayforIndia teams up athletes and celebs to raise funds

By
The CSR Journal
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While the pandemic has dealt a blow to sports at large, the impact has been more severe for those working at sports venues and training facilities. Celebrities and athletes have come together to launch #PlayforIndia.
The growing network behind this initiative includes the likes of cricketers Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Smriti Mandhana and Mayank Aggarwal; Olympians Dipa Karmakar, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik; tennis ace Sania Mirza, celebrities Abhishek Bachchan and Sunil Shetty, and some of the most respected organizations in Indian sport.
The sports CSR initiative aims to bring together India’s sporting community, fans & athletes and channel their efforts into giving back to people belonging to the often invisible support system without whom sports activities would not be possible: cleaners, gardeners, coaches, umpires, referees, caddies and other support staff who are not receiving a regular income due to the lack of work.

In the launch video of the initiative, India’s World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh emphasized on the important role played by these workers, Meanwhile, actor Abhishek Bachchan, who also owns teams in the Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian Super League, adds, “Today, these workers need all of our support. So, let’s come together and truly play for India.”
Partner institutes include GoSports Foundation, LawNK, Pro Sport Development, Life Is a Ball, Oaktree Sports, Meraki Connect, Baseline Ventures, WordsWork, Olympic Gold Quest, Inspire Institute of Sport.
The aim of this movement is to build a culture of giving back in the Indian sports industry, where athletes, coaches and industry professionals attempt to help their colleagues in different ways. In addition to financial support, #PlayforIndia also allows people to volunteer time, effort and energy to worthwhile causes within and outside the sports community, such as education, mental health, hygiene etc.
Deepthi Bopaiah, Executive Director, GoSports Foundation says, “The COVID-19 crisis has hugely impacted Indian sport with all activity coming to a halt. Those dependent on sport for their livelihood have been the hardest hit. We hope our initiative #PlayforIndia will help these people through this tough period. We believe that our collective experience in this space enables us to provide a trustworthy platform for promoting, facilitating, and supporting sporting causes throughout India.”
Somdev Devvarman, Ex-Davis Cupper and Founder, Life Is a Ball adds, “#PlayforIndia is a great example of what can be achieved when we work together. I encourage everyone to participate in their own way whether it is through donations, volunteering or by suggesting a worthwhile cause to benefit those in need.”
#PlayForIndia is for everyone who wants to give back to Indian sport. While its immediate objective is to help our less fortunate colleagues through this current crisis, #PlayForIndia will continue to work to support the thousands of worthy causes and people working on the frontline of Indian sport.
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.

AI-powered diagnostic solution speeds up COVID-19 screening

By
The CSR Journal
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QuEST Global, a global product engineering and lifecycle services company, announced that it has developed a robust AI-powered solution that will enable healthcare professionals to accelerate COVID-19 screening of patients with pneumonia symptoms.
Using advanced deep learning models, the AI-powered diagnostic solution can sort and identify chest X-rays of patients with COVID-19. With an accuracy of more than 95%, the solution can be deployed on the cloud as a service, making it easily accessible on edge for healthcare professionals and end-users. The solution is backed by Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, which helps accelerate the development and deployment on machine learning models in a highly secure and trusted fashion.
The Medical Devices engineering team at QuEST developed this technology demonstrator using chest X-rays of healthy individuals, patients with symptoms of pneumonia and COVID-19. These X-rays were used to train and build a deep neural network model that could discriminate the radiological patterns of pneumonia related to COVID-19 and highlight the suspicious ones, thus leading to a faster screening of the disease.
Krish Kupathil, Global Head, Hi-Tech and Digital, QuEST Global said, “Since the fight against COVID-19 is all about faster screening and immediate isolation of maximum number of people, we aim to accelerate the screening time as much as possible. The AI-based solution will make radiography examinations much faster by leveraging modern image diagnostic systems. As we continue to add more features, we aim to reduce the screening time to less than a minute”.
Michael Kuptz, General Manager – Americas IoT & Mixed Reality Sales, Microsoft, said, “Microsoft’s collaborations with product engineering leaders like QuEST can go a long way to driving a more positive outcome. For example, QuEST’s AI-driven diagnostic solution, built on Microsoft Azure, empowers healthcare personnel in the fight against COVID-19 by reducing screening time, thereby enabling more testing capacity.”
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.

Building an Inclusive, Sustainable & Resilient Social Impact Sector for the Future

By
The CSR Journal
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Arthan, a social enterprise that provides capacity building support to social sector organisations, is launching a long term, future-oriented and multi-stakeholder initiative, ‘Building Civil Society Organisations of the Future’. This online to offline initiative begins with a track on ‘The Future of Fundraising’ on June 22, 2020, bringing together a mix of international and Indian donor organisations such as The MacArthur Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Ford Foundation, amongst many others. Other tracks include: Future of Jobs (25th and 26th June), Future of Education (3rd July) and Women’s Leadership in the Development Sector (14th July), Urban Cities (30th and 31st July)
The pandemic brought forth the spirit of collaboration of the social sector with a plethora of online convenings and other collaborations and collectives. However, a few questions remained unaddressed. These range from the need for a long term, sustainable and resilient strategy for the impact sector that would include the voices of all stakeholders in the sector – across regions, languages and gender to ensuring accountability by converting these dialogues into action. This initiative will address ecosystem challenges and opportunities, in the wake of the pandemic, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, progress towards which has been pushed back due to these unforeseen circumstances. The initiative, which will run from June 2020 to December 2021, is meant to co-create solutions, co-evolve out of the pandemic, and define the future of civil society organisations in India.
The pandemic laid bare the inefficiencies of our healthcare systems and illustrated the lack of preparedness for a crisis of this magnitude, failing our fellow humans, migrant families, who could have been treated with greater dignity and justice, had we prepared better for this disaster. As the lockdowns end and unlocks begin, we need to be better equipped to ensure our societal and economic goals work in tandem and address the need for respectable jobs for all.
The conference will bring together experts, practitioners, and thought leaders from across the impact sector, private sector and government to address key issues in streams including but not limited to urban planning, agriculture & migration, gender, education, violence against women, farmer distress, child protection and the role of the civil society & government, that have been irrevocably affected and need pivoting and strengthening in these times of COVID-19 and the years to come.  This constantly evolving universe will bring together 3000 speakers and build the capacity of 10,000 civil society organisations across sectors, over the next two years. Audiences will include NGOs, practitioners, leaders, job seekers, academicians and many more.
Satyam Vyas, founder & CEO, Arthan says, “The world is reeling under a pandemic and question marks have been placed on the future – of individuals, organisations, countries and the world economy. Conversations about scripting a new normal have become the norm. But we have to script the new normal now, and define it for the next decade if we want to achieve the development goals .”
And with thought, this social impact initiative will have leaders, who have been driving transformational change in civil society, come together to create a collaborative of those working towards accelerating progress, creating a space for dialogue and actionable steps. Through various formats such as panel discussions, masterclasses and roundtables, the virtual conference series will stress upon the need of reimagining the areas of financial management, fundraising, talent management, communication and technology to help the social impact sector pivot in a way that not only allows for organisational continuity but also for organisations to stay on their path of creating long term and sustainable impact.
In the first phase from June-October 2020, Arthan is convening this ecosystem where all social sector leaders voice their opinion, in their languages – leaders who have ‘walked the talk’ time and again and who can guide the sector to move towards the right direction. Some of the notable names include Moutushi Sengupta, MacArthur Foundation; Deepali Khanna, The Rockefeller Foundation; Yamini Aiyar, Centre for Policy Research; Dr Rukmini Banerjee, Pratham; Ashif Shaikh, Jan Sahas; Shrikanth Viswanath, Janaagraha among a long list of more than 200 speakers. The convenings and sessions that are a part of this long term initiative, will be open to people from around the world and will have sessions based on a freemium model.
Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content.
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