Panjab varsity girls’ hostels get four pad-vending machines

Amarjot kaur

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, March 9

Four sanitary napkin vending machines and 10 incinerators were installed at Sarojini Hall (Girls’ hostel No. 3), and Kasturba Hall (Girls’ hostel No. 4) as part of the Panjab University’s International Women’s Day-2019 campaign under the theme of ‘Balance for Better’.

“We started a pilot project in the international hostel and Neerja Bhanot Girls Hostel, where we installed one vending machine and incinerators. Going by the feedback we received, one vending machine was good enough for a hostel. However, an incinerating machine was needed on each floor,” said Dean Students’ Welfare (DSW) (women) Prof Neena Caplash.

Prof Emanual Nahar, DSW (men), and Caplash were the chief guests for the Women’s Day celebrations at the girls’ hostel No. 3 today evening.

Caplash said, “We are in the process of installing seven incinerators and a vending machine in Mother Teresa Girls’ Hostel No. 6. The machines, which will dispense a pack of four pads for Rs 10 only, have been given to us by a company as part of their corporate social responsibility.”

She said, “In both, Sarojini Hall and Kasturba Hall, 10 sanitary pad incinerating machines and four pad-vending machines have been installed. As Kasturba Hall is a big building, we’ll be installing one vending machine in the main building and the other one in its extension.”

While talking about the Women’s Day programme, Dr Ravneet Kaur, warden, Sarojini Hall, said, “Sanitation and menstrual health are of prime importance when it comes to the overall well-being of women. The only problem we have been facing so far is that most students throw used pads wrapped in plastic covers in the incinerating machines, while they should be covering these with paper.”

Caplash said though this was just the beginning, the university authorities would provide each hostel with a pad-vending machine and incinerators on each floor in due course. 

At the Women’s Day celebrations, a workshop on women health, sanitation and cervical cancer was organised by the members of “Project We”, a group of students from the Department of Chemical Engineering, PU.