City school gets sanitary napkin-vending machine

Tribune News Service

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Ludhiana, August 17

With an aim to promote personal hygiene and create awareness among girl students about sanitary napkins, a sanitary napkin-vending machine as well as an incinerator (for proper disposal of sanitary napkins) was today installed at Mahatma Satyanand Munjal Arya Kanya Gurukul, Shastri Nagar.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Apneet Riyat inaugurated the machine.

Riyat said the district administration on the International Women’s Day on March 8 took a vow to work in this regard and till date, several machines had been installed in many schools of the district.

The machine and incinerator were donated by Arun Seth from Versatile Enterprises Pvt Ltd under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity.

Riyat said such machines and incinerators had been installed in several schools (both government and private) of the district. One such machine had been installed in the Women Jail, here, as well, she said.

The machines had been installed with the active support of several NGOs, industrial houses, philanthropists and private banks under their CSR activity.

She said each vending machine, costing around Rs 25,000, would dispense three sanitary napkins, each costing Rs 10.

Arun Seth said their company had started a project, ‘Amodini – a vision for happy and healthy girl child’ which signified a ‘happy girl’ breaking the silence about menstrual hygiene for girls in the society. He said during the installation of the these machines, the group realised that hardware component needed to be followed by the software component through which the school staff and girls could be sensitised that it was not only about procuring the sanitary napkins but also about understanding the significance of using hygiene means.

Under the project, the first workshop was organised today, which was attended by 200 girls, who were guided through technical and interactive session by doctors and public health experts.

The workshop was addressed by Dr Bhawana Sachdeva (gynecologist), Dr Parminder Punn (homeopathic doctor), Dr Surbhi Madaan (public health) and Shweta Seth (yoga expert).