Govt schools in this Uttarakhand hill district to have sanitary pad vending machines for girls

To promote personal hygiene among girl students and encourage them to come to schools, government schools in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district will now have sanitary pad vending machines.

To promote personal hygiene among girl students and encourage them to come to schools, government schools in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district will now have sanitary pad vending machines.

Representative image of a pad vending machineD (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Swati Bhadouriya, district magistrate of Chamoli district has instructed officials to install the machines in schools which have a maximum number of female students. The district magistrate gave the instructions during a meeting of the District Task Force Committee on Wednesday for better implementation of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative.

“There is no difference between boys and girls, the society will survive only when daughters are saved. This message needs to reach each and every village and it is important to make people aware on balancing of the sex-ratio. Schools which have maximum number of girls in the district should be listed and sanitary pad vending machines should be installed in such schools, to encourage girls to come to school,” said the district magistrate.

She further said many meritorious girls drop out and don’t pursue higher education due to weak economic conditions.

“The education department should also focus on starting job-oriented courses for girls in schools, so that they have an option of earning money in future if the girls are not able to pursue higher education. Meritorious students should be identified and such girls will be given help for further studies under this scheme,” added Bhadouriya.

The District Magistrate said that if any pregnant woman is found deprived of the benefits of this scheme, the Anganwadi worker would be directly responsible for this.