Ruchi Yemul in conversation with Avantika Kadapatti, founder of Do It For the Hood foundation. DIFTH is a grassroots, Pune based non-profit that focuses on disaster relief and social justice.
What is DIFTH about and what is the organization’s vision?
Our organization actively spreads awareness and mobilizes pad donations via over 100 volunteers and organizing committee members. We move further into the field of women’s socio-economic liberation and rights with every second. Women of all ages, caste, creed and religion, in urban as well as rural spaces, are present in socio-economic backgrounds which unfortunately do not equip them with the opportunities to provide for their healthcare and hygiene or produce an environment that is conducive for the same. These are our main priorities.
What inspired you to start the organization?
I’ve been a feminist since 7th grade. While growing up, I kept learning of the different aspects of feminism. When I joined law school, I started engaging with a lot of people and organizations but I was surprised to see that none of them contributed towards women’s menstrual health.
In 2018, when Kerala was hit by the devastating floods, we thought of using our privilege to put some good out there. When we looked into it, there were barely any donations being made for sanitary pads. Hence, we thought of focusing on women’s needs. There is a dire need to break this taboo around menstruation and how we must keep hush. With every sanitary pad that we receive, it not helps a woman in need but also breaks period taboo and normalizes a vital aspect of their health.
We believe that every woman should have access to the health products required for them to have a safe, healthy and clean experience every single month. We started with this goal and two years since, we still stand strong and are collectively working towards our mission.
Apart from helping women, which other initiatives has DIFTH taken?
We seek to help anyone who is in need even though we are specific to women. We obviously focus on menstrual health care but we also spread awareness about men’s reproductive health through our podcasts. Recently, we also started focusing on marginalized communities and helped sex workers.
Could you elaborate more on the role DIFTH played during the Kerala floods?
The news came in as a shock since there was a massive destruction. We knew that we needed to help the people who had lost their homes and had been displaced. At first, it did not strike us to be specific with sanitary pads but we realized that not many organizations included sanitary pads in their donation drives so we thought of focusing on that alone.
We used our networks and social media platforms to share the news of our donation drive. We were beyond happy to receive about 3000 sanitary pads which itself broke a huge taboo. Pilot Kerala, as a program, helped us kick start our work towards building DIFTH.
How did DIFTH help the migrant workers during the nation-wide lockdown?
For the longest time during the lockdown, our hands were tied. There were only a few organizations that had limited access to specific labour camps. They would collect funds and accompany the police to these areas but they were soon running out of funds that when we thought of pitching in and helping. We put out a list of the essential items and having collected them we sent them to the migrant workers with the help of these established organizations. We were glad that we stepped up at the right moment since that is when the migrants were returning home. We started collecting funds for the workers in Pune and our volunteers would personally go to the camps and donate the items. We collected items ranging from basic staples like salt, sugar, spices, pulses and rice to sanitary products.
What about the other communities during the pandemic?
Sex workers were the worst affect community during the pandemic; they were literally living off scraps. We decided to focus on marginalized communities. We collaborated with Saheli which is an organization in Pune that seeks to empower sex workers through collectivization and provides them with health care support. We were informed of their needs and we physically went and donated essentials to them with utmost security. Our volunteers did most of the physical work while the core team was more involved in the administration and logistics aspect of it all. We are grateful to have so many people volunteer each time we are in need of extra hands.
Which other activities has DIFTH undertaken?
We have podcasts that cover a lot of contemporary issues like body image and breaking stereotypes. We also have social media campaigns for the same and so far, the reception has been good. We are currently focusing on women and business. Through this new initiative, we are trying to inspire women to help them achieve their dreams irrespective of their circumstances and break the stereotypes around patriarchy.
Apart for that, we are also planning to focus on how toxic masculinity affects men as well. Being feminist doesn’t necessarily mean that we must focus on women alone. With this idea, we hope to explore more contemporary issues that are prevalent today.
Finally, what’s next for DIFTH?
We plan to have more campaigns. There is a huge disparity in our society where some women are privileged enough to have access to sanitary products like menstrual cups and tampons while the rest still resort to cloth pads. Hence, we aim to set up sanitary pad dispensaries in schools and colleges that will make these pads available to girls for just Rs. 5.
DIFTH successfully completed 2 years in September 2020. They hope to complete many more years and effectively use their privilege to put some good out there.