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Mangaluru: Making the Swachh Bharat Mission even more inclusive, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has decided to expand the programme to include women’s hygiene.
For women, menstrual hygiene is very important. While one of the concerns still remains the use of sanitary pads over pieces of cloth, another major concern that does not get as much attention, is the disposal of the sanitary pads.
The Mangaluru ZP will, on Friday, June 22, launch the Swachh Gelathi programme to spread awareness and address the needs of menstruating girls. The ZP has already been using the concept of ‘Namma Tyajya, Namma Hone’, meaning ‘Our Waste, Our Responsibility’, to promote cleanliness and sanitation under the Swachh Bharat Mission. The Swachh Gelathi programme is a way to include menstrual hygiene in the ‘Namma Tyajya, Namma Hone’ concept.
The Swachh Gelathi will target the around 30,734 female students in government, aided as well as private schools with an aim is to provide a sort of personal tutorial on menstrual hygiene, with the help of slightly elder peers acting in the capacity of a guide or counsellor. The programme will enlist the services of the women National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers from the various colleges to help guide the school girls.
Some of the topics that will be touched upon will be the hygienic practices to be followed during the menstrual cycle, scientific disposal of sanitary pads, instilling of self-confidence in the girls and creation of awareness about the various taboos related to the menstrual cycle. One of the main aims of the ZP is to also sensitize boys to the issue of menstruation.
According to a survey of a sample of 6455 women conducted by the Department of health and family welfare, about 18.55% of women disposed of the pads in the waste or coconut tree pits, 24.84% were giving them to the waste disposal vehicles, 14.03% were discarding them in the toilets, 29.52% were burning it, while the remaining 13.01% were throwing them into drains.
As many as 132 high schools and 10 hostels have received sanitary napkin incinerators under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Reportedly, a proposal has been sent to install sanitary napkin incinerators in 33 high schools and 47 hostels for the academic year 2018-19.
It can be recalled that in the year 2012, a girl’s toilet complex consisting of nine cubicles and an inbuilt sanitary pad disposal unit, was built in the Government Higher Primary School in Kasaba Bengre, Mangaluru. The disposal unit was set up on a pilot basis and was built with funds from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
