Nagaland’s Sekulu Nyekha has become the youngest winner of the ‘120 under 40: The New Generation of Family Planning Leaders’ an initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise awareness about family planning and reproductive health around the world.
‘It is time the government takes note; we have no sex education is school, we are never told anything about our body, about sexual health or even about puberty or menstrual hygiene. This needs to change. We need to talk about our bodies,’ said the 22-year-old.
Nyekha’s project will focus on the sexual reproductive health issues of people with disability. She was drawn to the subject couple of years ago, during a summer internship programme at the Hidden Pockets Collective, a Bengaluru-based organisation that works towards finding women safe spaces to discuss sexual health issues.
As part of this initiative, every winner including Nyekha is entitled to 1,000 USD each from the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. ‘We barely have any stories about people with disabilities, and the ones we have are filtered. In my project, they, not others, will talk about their realities and hopes, in relation to sexual reproductive health,’ concluded Nyekha.
