JOIN USAndhra Pradesh government to provide 120 free sanitary napkins to girl students every year
The Andhra Pradesh government has launched "Swechha", an initiative to provide free sanitary napkins to adolescent girls studying in government educational institutions.
10 sanitary napkins will be handed every month to each of the about 10 lakh girls studying in 7 to 12th standards of all the government schools and intermediate colleges across the state.
Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy launched the programme aimed at improving the health and hygiene of adolescent girls, on Tuesday.
“Studies point out that about 23 per cent of girls in the country are staying away from schools and colleges during their monthly menstruation period. In order to change this situation, our government has initiated various measures like improving the cleanliness of toilets in all government institutions under the Nadu-Nedu programme and now Swechha,” Reddy said.
Each girl student will be receiving 120 napkins of good quality every year, which the state will procure at Rs 32 crore. Students will also be taught about proper disposal of sanitary pads, with separate dustbins and incinerators provided under the government's Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP), a programme initiated on 2nd October to provide better sanitation services in rural and urban areas.
The CM said that under the Swechha initiative, awareness on menstruation will also be created for the students once every month by women teachers, ANMs and women police.
School girls would also be made aware about the Disha app, the government has brought in for women safety. A joint collector will monitor these orientation programmes at the district level while a women teacher will act as the nodal officer in each school.
The government has initiated the Nadu-Nedu (Then and Now) programme and is revamping the toilets in 56,703 schools and hostels by providing them with running water facilities. In the first phase, 15,715 schools have been renovated and all the remaining schools will be completed by 2023, CM Reddy said.
Women and child welfare minister Taneti Vanitha said that napkins are being procured from established companies and that the stocks required for October and November months are already dispatched to schools.
Watch latest videos by DH here: