Tripura State Government To Provide Free Sanitary Napkins To Schoolgirls. This Is A Win For Menstrual Hygiene

Tripura State Government To Provide Free Sanitary Napkins To Schoolgirls. This Is A Win For Menstrual Hygiene

As much as we loathe the global pandemic that we are currently experiencing, we can’t deny that it has successfully highlighted the problems that were previously overlooked and ignored. Menstruation and the lack of menstrual hygiene, for instance. Even today, women all around our country use unsanitary menstrual products like cloth instead of pads and tampons. Period poverty is rampant and awareness is scarce due to the stigma surrounding the concept of menstruation. However, it seems like a few state-governments are finally recognizing the problem and working towards boosting menstrual hygiene. The latest of them being the Tripura government. They are going to distribute free sanitary napkins to all school-going girls. This sounds like a promising initiative. 

On Wednesday, Tripura Education Minister Ratanlal Nath announced that the state government has approved a proposal to provide free sanitary napkins to all school girls from the sixth grade to the twelfth. 

While addressing a press conference, Nath said, “To enhance female menstrual hygiene, the Tripura Cabinet on Wednesday gave approval for providing free sanitary napkins among all school girls from class sixth to twelfth.” 

Also Read: The Tamil Nadu Government Has Taken An Initiative To Provide Free Sanitary Napkins To Urban Areas. We Are All For This

This scheme called the Kishori Suchita Abhiyan covers a total of 1,68,252 students. The state of Tripura will be investing a whopping sum of 3,61,63,248 from the state’s exchequer for a period of three years. 

Tripura’s Education Minister added, “The state education department has also adopted the ‘Policy On School Bag 2020’ in accordance with the guideline of the Department of School Education and Literacy of Education Ministry.” 

Needless to say, we are all for initiatives and schemes like these. It’s essential that India now focuses on eradicating period poverty and increasing awareness about menstrual hygiene. Especially in rural and tribal areas. Menstruation is still considered a taboo and it’s because of these baseless stigmas that thousands of women and girls still don’t use sanitary napkins and are suffering in silence every month. It’s high time our central and state governments focus on boosting menstrual hygiene. 

Tripura has set a fabulous example. We can only hope more states follow suit.

https://thehauterfly.com/lifestyle/the-khalsa-aid-group-provided-free-sanitary-pads-to-women-farmers/

Mitali Shah

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