Amritsar: London’s oldest Sikh shrine Shepherd Bush Gurdwara has decided to launch period policy and encourage sangat to donate menstrual pad on the langar model.“The period policy is created to ensure equality is provided for all sewadar’s , sangat and guests that attend the Gurdwara sahib. They will be educated to ensure that everyone knows that there are no restrictions to sewa for any menstruating woman” said Professor Peter Virdee of the Virdee Foundation on Wednesday adding that through regular katha they would eliminate shame, stigma and taboo.Virdee’s foundation had performed the sewa of Sheperd Bush Gurdwara to restore its dilapidated building.The policy will be launched on February 10 and has been designed in collaboration with Manjit Kaur Gill of Biniti International and Peter Virdee to promote equality within Sikh community for both men and women.While stressing on the need to encourage sangat to donate menstrual pad’s Gill , quoting a recent survey, said that one in ten girls in the UK couldn’t afford menstrual products . “ The sikh community through its langar model are being encouraged to donate menstrual pads so that all women can have access to menstrual products” she said.She said the need to launch the period policy was felt owing to the fact that in the UK and around the world there were many stories of misinterpretation of whether women were allowed to perform religious tasks and sewa whilst menstruating.When asked whether any Gurdwara management raised objection on adopting period policy, Gill said “I spoke to the Giani who is from Bangla Sahib and initially he disagreed. But after I explained how men can be dirty too he said he respected our project” adding that in another case one of the presidents of another Gurdwara said that he did not want to get involved with something so controversial so I left it for later.Peter said “We talk a lot in the UK about how women are unable to afford Menstrual products so this policy has been designed with Guru Nanaks langar in mind. We hope that all Gurdwara in the UK will stock free Menstrual products so that any woman can go into a Gurdwara and take a pad. If she needs to eat food she can do so. We serve the women that are really suffering in poverty.”

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