NAGPUR: In a relief to women from the tribal community, a 26-year-old village sarpanch has helped set up a modern resting home or "period home" in a village in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.
The tribal community in Gadchiroli practices a custom called "kurma", in which women who are menstruating stay away from their homes and rest in a separate living quarters for the isolation period.
When women in Fasli Tola village of Dhanora taluka started demanding modern hygienic "kurma" homes with basic amenities, Sunanda Tulavi, the sarpanch of Dudhmala Gram Panchayat, along with an NGO, stepped in to set up "period homes" for tribal girls and women.
Speaking to PTI, Tulavi said there is a practice in tribal villages, where girls and woman isolate themselves and stay in "kurma" homes when they menstruate.
However, these temporary homes were in a dilapidated condition and lacked basic amenities such as water, electricity among other requirements, she said.
Tulavi, who got elected to the post earlier this year, decided to approach NGO Kherwadi Social Welfare Association, Mumbai, to construct a modern period home in Fasli Tola village.
Meetings were held with village women, who also helped in the construction of the quarters, terming the arrangement as "shramdaan" (labour donation), she said.
Plastic bottles and sand were used to construct the home, which can house 13 to 14 women, Tulavi said, adding the house has one large room, a toilet, a cupboard, beds, mattresses, fans and solar-powered electricity supply.
The organisation has built four period homes in Dhanora taluka with the help of local women, and more such houses will be built by June 15, one of the personnel of the NGO said.