Laila GP's initiative to make girls feel free

Personal hygiene

The gram panchayat has set a precedent in the State by launching reasonably priced ‘safety-feel free’ sanitary napkins. The panchayat has also gone a step ahead by planning to instal napkin vending machines in schools and build special toilets for girls in some schools of the district with napkin incinerators and sliders on a pilot basis.

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Dr K N Vijayprakash said the project would be taken up in 62 schools in the district; five toilets will be built at a cost of Rs 1.83 lakh a unit and another 57 toilets at a cost of 1.53 lakh each. Ten toilets will be designed specifically for women with ‘napi disposable units,’ and 10 for men.

Awareness campaign

Besides, a special awareness campaign will be launched on November 1 for girl students from classes VI to VIII under ‘Kishori Yojane’ to make them aware of personal hygeine.
The Gram Panchayat, with the support of the Zilla Panchayat, has entered into a pact with Siri Gramodyog for marketing.

Besides, the Zilla Panchayat has asked all the hostels run by the government departments and health centres to purchase the napkins.

“The hostels at present purchase napkins at Rs 19 a pack. We will supply Safety napkin at Rs 12 a pack,” said the CEO.

The district has 50 hostels run by the Social Welfare and BCM departments and Morarji Desai residential schools.

The panchayat has asked the doctors in about 80 primary health centres and community health centres to encourage the project, he added.

The gram panchayat also launched another of its novel scheme - Laila Gold - to prepare compost from waste generated in the villages under its limits.

Both Laila Gold and Safety napkins were brainchild of former CEO of the Zilla Panchayat Shivshankar, who is now the State director of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.