Manishika Srivastav
Hey there!
Have you ever been to a large function or gathering? If yes, then I'm sure you would have noticed the various kinds of people there, ranging from the talkative aunty's to the gossiping grandma's. Amidst all that noice and endless chatter, you would find that one person who just calmly sits, sees and listens to everything else.
Hey! I am Manishika Srivastav, a 16 year old teenager and a student of class 11 at Sri kumaran children's home, and I consider myself to be that person. I strongly believe in the power of listening, observation and thorough thinking. I live my life by the 3A's. Being Attentive, Analysing the things I see and the decisions I make and finally taking a stand - Action. This very philosophy has also enabled me to be a national level chess player, along with being a talented artist and an avid reader who enjoys all kinds of books. I also enjoy designing templates and logos with creative twists. Last but not the least I play the guitar and self taught myself to play quite a few songs and tunes. Looking back at all of my interests and accolades some of my inherent characters seem to shine through, such as being Patient, observant, hardworking, keen, perseverant ,empathetic, creative, innovative etc and I believe that I can use these very traits to create an impact, however small that maybe, in the world.
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My Story
At my pad, my responsibility we have started as a small step towards change, but we have big dreams.
Here is a little backstory regarding how I came up with the idea of mypadmyresponsibility.com. while travelling back from my coaching class I happened to notice a woman with her kid collecting some waste into their bags from a pile of waste spread on the road side , I could even see the unwrapped sanitary pads in the same pile which the woman and the kid were searching. This scene somehow had an impact on me and I began to think of how inhumane, dangerous and simply gross it was to pick that pad up.
Eventually I read up about it a bit and got to know that a lot of women throw away sanitary napkins without properly wrapping them and that improper segregation and disposal of sanitary pads, forces these rag pickers to remove them by hand which makes them prone to many diseases.The blood becomes host to bacterias like e-coli, streptococci and staphlococci. All this can spread infection. If ragpickers do not wear boots, their feet are prone to catch infection. Not only does improper sanitary waste disposal effect the rag pickers, but it also effects the environment, wherein if not properly disposed off by incineration etc, these pads persist in the environment for a long time causing pollution and diseases by being washed away in water bodies and polluting the soil in which we grow crops.
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This sight forced me to dive into this problem and come out with a solution.Eventually I came up with a very simple yet extremely effective solution, and thus, SWDUM (Sanitary Waste Disposal Uniformly Marked) Bags were born which are made using old newspapers.
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