Akshay inspires convicted ‘Padwomen’

Even as the Akshay Kumar starrer flick Padman is set for release on Republic Day, some 20 convicted women inmates at West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri Central Jail are getting ready to make sanitary napkins to
Akshay Kumer in the first look of 'Padman'.
Akshay Kumer in the first look of 'Padman'.

KOLKATA: Even as the Akshay Kumar starrer flick Padman is set for release on Republic Day, some 20 convicted women inmates at West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri Central Jail are getting ready to make sanitary napkins to reach out to women in remote areas.

The decision to form a Self-Help Group (SHG) of the convicted women, some of them jailed for life, was taken jointly by the district administration and the prisons department in view of the requirement for sanitary napkins in remote parts of the border district.

The administration plans to supply the napkins made by the prisoners to napkin-vending machines in schools, colleges and shelter homes, besides selling them in the market. The napkins would be supplied free of cost to vending machines throughout the state. Inmates at the prison run a bakery, a furniture workshop and an oil refining machine inside jail premises.

“Even today, sanitary napkins don’t reach large parts of Jalpaiguri district. This is the first such initiative in north Bengal where jail inmates would help meet the pressing demand for sanitary napkins in the district and the state,” said Jalpaiguri Prison superintendent Subhabrata Chatterjee.

Sources revealed that bank accounts would be opened in the names of 20 selected convicts and they would be trained to establish and run the SHG. A sanitary napkin making machine would also be purchased. The total expense for the project would be around `6 lakh, and the first napkins would hit the market in three months.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com