NEW DELHI: In a boost to menstrual hygiene among women and adolescent girls, Tihar Jail will manufacture affordable quality sanitary pads under its TJ’s brand.According to the Tihar administration, the launch is scheduled in the first week of March. Manually-operated machines to manufacture these pads have already arrived at the largest jail of the country.
Tihar will become the second prison after Sabarmati Central Jail at Ahmedabad in Gujarat to manufacture sanitary pads. Women convicts will be roped in and they will earn wages in the process.NGOs ‘Navajivan’ and ‘Karma Foundation’ will help the Sabarmati jail in setting up machine, providing raw material and wages to inmates and selling the sanitary pads.
Bakery products, handloom and textile, apparel, furniture, recycled hand-made paper products, paintings, designer candles and lamps, jute bags, herbal products are the other items manufactured at the factory inside Central Jail 2 in Tihar.Menstruation has often been a taboo subject in India where women and adolescent girls often suffer due to either lack of information on hygiene or no access to sanitary pads.
A senior Tihar Jail officer said the sanitary pads will be, initially, given to girl students from government schools free of cost. “These pads will be comparable to the best available in the market,” the officer said.
“The first stock of pads will be available from March. The cost of setting-up the unit is about `4 lakh. Our inmates will be able to manufacture almost 1,500-2,000 pads daily. If required, we will upgrade our machine,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, the Tihar administration also plans to install vending machines across the city, especially in slum areas, where women and adolescent girls can avail sanitary pads at a nominal cost.“The entire project will also improve hygiene of women inmates as they will get the pads free of cost. It will also bring down the annual budget allotted to buy sanitary pads from the market,” the officer said.
Low-cost sanitary pads, which came to the limelight after the story of social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham was adapted in Bollywood movie PadMan, have turned out to a big relief for womenfolk. Muruganantham is credited for innovating grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16, the use of Sanitary Napkins among Indian women is 48.5 per cent in rural, 77.5 per cent in urban and 57.6 per cent total. The survey says 62 per cent Indian women between the ages of 15 to 24 are still using cloth during menstruation.