A Step In The Right Direction: Free Sanitary Napkins For School Girls In Vadodara To Prevent Dropouts

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) took a bold step on 14 February (Thursday) by launching an initiative to provide free sanitary napkins for school girls in Vadodara municipal schools.

“Over 30 per cent of girl students in India drop out of schools by class 9, and by class 11, the numbers rise to 57 per cent, says the Children in India 2018 report released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation late last year,” as reported by India Today.

The primary reason behind the increase in dropout rate is the lack of proper hygiene facilities in schools for girls who hit puberty. This new initiative taken up by the VMC would not only help tackle the dropout rate among girls but will also promote cleanliness and hygiene.

“The VMC has started providing sanitary napkins to girls free of cost from today. These machines have been installed in 10 schools out of 104 schools run by VMC. The remaining schools will also get these machines soon,” said VMC commissioner, Ajay Bhadoo.

Furthermore, Bhadoo said that ten schools in the city have already received such machines, and the remaining will get them soon.