With Congress MP Sashi Tharoor on Friday saying in the Lok Sabha that the percentage of girl dropouts in schools was high on account of lack of menstrual care facilities, the government pointed out that a pack of six sanitary napkins is being provided to adolescent girls at a cost of Rs 6 every month under a centrally-sponsored scheme.
The Congress MP said while government was providing napkins to school girls there is a need to provide the same to the women work force in the country where again there is a dip in number of working women on account of non-availability of good hygiene facilities including toilets and napkins .
Responding to Tharoor, Union Health Minister Vardhan said the government is supporting the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme, a component of Rs Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya KaryakramRs , by providing funds to States and Union territories.
"Under the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme a pack of six sanitary napkins is provided to adolescent girls at a cost of Rs 6 per pack by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) through door-to-door visits and also through platforms of schools and anganwadi centres," he said during the Question Hour.
The ASHA gets an incentive amount of Rs 1 per pack sold to the beneficiary, besides getting a free pack of sanitary napkins per month for her personal use.
The minister said funds are also provided to ASHAs for holding monthly meetings with adolescent girls to discuss issues related to menstrual hygiene.
This intervention involves increasing awareness among adolescent girls on menstrual hygiene, improving access to high quality sanitary napkins by them, ensuring safe disposal of sanitary napkins in an environmentally friendly manner, he said.