Nineteen-year-old Yogita, daughter of a rickshaw puller, said she was happy when she started getting a pack of six sanitary pads for ₹6 last year from the government. But it did not last long. “Just before the lockdown, we stopped getting pads from didi [ASHA worker]. Now, sometimes I buy pads from outside, else use old clothes,” Yogita, who lives in a rented one-room house, told The Hindu .
Under the government’s Udaan scheme, like Yogita, 30,000 out-of-school girls used to get six sanitary pads for ₹6 a month. But the scheme has not been functional for the past seven to eight months as the government has not floated a tender for new suppliers, according to officials and multiple ASHA workers. Most of the beneficiaries of the scheme are from economically backward backgrounds.
“The scheme has been restructured to give 10 sanitary pads free of cost to about 70,000 out of school girls a month. A tender for procuring the sanitary pads will be floated soon,” a Delhi government official said.
‘No comments’
When contacted, a Delhi government spokesperson did not offer a comment on why the scheme is not operational.
Yogita said she had got the sanitary pads through an ASHA worker for seven to eight months since April last year. “It was very helpful. Now even though we don’t have much money, we are forced to buy it from the bazaar,” she added.
Surbhi Singh, a gynaecologist and founder of Sacchi Saheli, an NGO working for women’s health and education, said that the girls going back to using old cloth pieces can be problematic.
“It is not that sanitary pads are better than cloth, but an old cloth piece has to be washed and dried in the sunlight before using it. This has to be done again before reusing it too. But due to shame and lack of information, many women do not wash it and dry it properly. This causes skin and vaginal infection,” Dr. Singh said.
Target was 50K girls
It is part of the Central government’s Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS), wherein funds are given to State governments to purchase the sanitary pads. The scheme was implemented under the name of Udaan by the Delhi government from April 2019. Though the target was to reach 50,000 adolescent girls a month, the government was able to distribute it to about 30,000 girls on an average.
The scheme was also aimed at creating awareness about safe and hygienic menstrual health practices.
After the scheme was started in 2019, the Delhi government decided to increase the number of pads to 10 from six and also give the pads for free. The contract, which was signed last year with a private company, expired in March and a new tender has not been floated yet.
Reason: pandemic
The official said that there were delays due to the pandemic as well as the government’s decision to change the specifications of the pads and purchase those with better quality.
“The Delhi government will bear the extra cost when increasing the number of pads from 6 to 10 while also making them free,” the official added.
Dr. Singh said the government should “definitely restart” the scheme. “In Scotland, sanitary pads are given for free to every woman. But in India, it is not given for free to even poor people,” she added.
In December 2019, the Delhi High Court had asked the Delhi government and civic bodies here to keep providing sanitary pads for free to schoolgoing girls and those who dropped out and continue with their awareness programmes and schemes to promote menstrual hygiene.
Published - December 10, 2020 12:51 am IST
