Sandy Khanda – Social Activist , Farmer & Environmentalist Awarded with John Players Real Man Award In Association with The Times Of India, april 2023 Edition for his outstanding work for society. The Award is given by Mr Akashy Shukla who is resident editor of Navbharat Times Delhi NCR. Sandy Khanda is well known for his social initiatives through his NGO Green Pencil Foundation. He was also recently awarded with the MHM Champion Award In Delhi in the 3rd MHM India Summit At NDMC Convention Centre for his initiative “Periods Of Pride’ By Green Pencil Foundation under which he is educating the teenage , rural & slum girl’s and women’s about the Menstrual Hygiene Management . Under the Initiative “Periods Of Pride’ he is breaking the taboos related to period poverty and educating them to take care of their health in the right way with better Menstrual Hygiene Management. Under this initiative he is also focusing on the reusable & recyclable cloth pads so that it be cost friendly & health friendly. Under the initiative we Organised 200+ Menstrual Hygiene Management Workshop throughout the country, where 20000+ girls ( aged between 8 years to 45 years) impacted.
On the occasion of New Year 2023 under this initiative he adopted 300+ Major & minor slum areas in urban cities and he pledged to cover 1000+ villages in Northern India.
Recently on January 12 , 2023 he was also awarded by the Gramalya Key Resource Centre Of Ministry Of Jal Shakti With the MHM Champion Award 2023 in 3rd MHM India Summit, New Delhi ,India which is the largest summit on Menstrual Hygiene Management. The award is given by the Padma Awardee Sai Damodaran , Reuben Gauci High Commission Of Malta, India and his spouse Olga Gauci .
The initiative “Periods Of Pride’ started by Sandy Khanda who is the founder & director of Green Pencil Foundation. Sandy Khanda is an Environmentalist , Social & Climate Activist who started working for society at an early age after quitting his career as an engineering graduate. He was born in a small village named Khanda , which is in the Jind District of Haryana. Haryana was famous for the girl child abortion & women rights in the early 1990’s days. After belonging to the rural background, Sandy experienced the social challenges & issues early in his childhood. So he struggled a lot to raise his voice and start work on the topic like periods after belonging to a pure rural background in a male dominant state where Khap Panchayat’s influence was more. It was very challenging for him to work on issues that his mother, sisters faced due to a lot of taboos & stigma that was connected with the periods. It was first the time when he realised in 7th standard , about the period when a girl first time started bleeding in class. I was wondering when the whole class was not aware about the periods and even our Teacher was also not aware about the Menstrual Hygiene Management. Teacher asked her to get leave and stay home , in class we all were thinking about the phenomenon behind this. This incident made me more curious about learning about the “Periods’. He belongs to a state where open talk on “Periods ‘ is a shame, where 100 percent women’s and girls were using any used bad clothes during periods , pads Available was very rare in rural areas in that even in many states now as well. These all challenges that he experienced & inspired him to work on “Menstrual Hygiene Management’ and Now Sandy Khanda is successfully raising his voice and educating thousands of teenage rural and urban slum areas girls and women about Menstrual Hygiene Management. Huge power and courage is required to work being Man work on the ‘Menstrual Hygiene Management’ after belonging to a state Haryana which was famous for the girls child abortion, low male – female ratio & for Khao Panchayats.
He is giving all the credits of his success in the field of social work to his mother, who inspired him through many social challenges throughout his life. Who taught him how to work with selfishness.