Ishita Bhatia (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 26, 2019)

Kathikeda (Hapur): Tucked away in a corner of Hapur district in UP, some 120km from Delhi, Kathikeda was an obscure village - till Monday. As news spread about the film ‘Period. End of Sentence’ winning an Oscar for best documentary, people from adjacent villages began arriving to celebrate.

The movie has been filmed on the sanitary pad-making unit here. Ironically, when the unit was set up in 2017, it had led to negative comments from villagers. Some made fun of the people employed here while others said the work was ‘dirty’.

“I dropped out of school after Class IX due to lack of funds. I always wanted to complete my education and become a singer. However, I could not contribute to the family’s income. Then, the unit was started. At first, I told my family that I used to make diapers for kids; I told them the truth much later. They eventually allowed me to continue working, although they protested at first. I get Rs 2,500 a month now and I am saving the money to complete my education and fulfil my dream of becoming a singer,” said 18-year-old Ruksana.

She is among the several whose dreams have got wings thanks to ‘Fly’ sanitary napkins made here. Currently a workplace for seven women, the unit operates from the house of Suman, who was in Los Angeles for the Oscar ceremony on Monday, along with the film’s lead figure, Sneha.
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Ishita Bhatia (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 26, 2019)

Things have changed in the village of Kathikeda in Hapur district – for the better – after a sanitary pad-making unit was set up and the movie ‘Period. End of Sentence’ was filmed. The village women, who did not know about sanitary napkins and used cloth during their periods, now use pads. The pads are now distributed from door to door. They are also made available at shops, priced at Rs 20 for a packet of six. Each woman at the unit is paid Rs 2,500 – which was Rs 2,000 till last month, and was increased only after their movie got nominated for the Oscars.

Rakhi, the manager of the pad-making unit, said, “Earlier girls used to drop out of school once their periods started because it became embarrassing for them when their clothes got stained. I was so shy that I couldn’t even tell my father that I worked at a pad-making unit. My mother had to tell this to him. But now, menstruation is no more a taboo.” She has completed her BA and plans to become a teacher. The other women working at the unit include Sushma (32), Preeti (20), Neeshu (18), and Arshi(18), apart from Sneha and Suman who were in Los Angeles on Monday.

The villagers were shown the movie on a projector by the filmmakers some months back. “When we used to talk about menstruation or sanitary napkins, people would abuse us and call us ‘bad women’. But when the movie was shot and interviews taken even from the men, people opened up about the issue,” said Shabana Khan, area coordinator (Hapur), Action India NGO. Now, another pad-making unit has been set up in Sudhna village of Hapur. The unit was set up after funds were raised by an English teacher Melissa Berton and 10 girl students from a school in Los Angeles to donate a pad-making machine in collaboration with NGOs Girls Learn International and Action India.

With the movie winning an Oscar, the village has become world-famous, said Poonam, Sneha’s cousin. “Earlier the relatives of my in-laws used to ask where was Kathikeda. Now we can pick up any newspaper and show them on page 1.”