The Indian Express: New Delhi: Saturday, February 03, 2018.
An RTI filed
by NGO Matri Sudha on January 5 this year shows that the government had
allocated Rs 16 crore in the 2017-2018 fiscal for sanitary napkins. But not a
rupee from the budget has been spent.
Kamla (48)
has three daughters all of whom study at a government school in the city. Two
of her daughters have hit puberty. For almost one-and-a-half-years now, Kamla,
a homemaker, has been struggling to adjust her monthly budget to buy sanitary
napkins for her daughters.
Earlier,
Kamla’s daughters, and about eight lakh other girls studying in state-run
schools used to get a packet of sanitary napkins each month from school.
Distribution of free pads in government schools was part of the Kishori Yojana
Scheme started by former CM Sheila Dikshit in 2011. However, the scheme was
scrapped in 2016.
“Every month,
the girls used to get a packet. Now, I have to spend Rs 35 for a single packet
and my daughters need at least two each every month. This has added to our
struggle as we have limited financial resources. I am compromising on my own
hygiene by using old clothes when I menstruate,” said Kamla, who lives in a
colony at Nardan Basti in Tughlakabad.
In November
2016, the girls were made to sign a paper and told that they will no longer get
free sanitary napkins.
However, an
RTI filed by NGO Matri Sudha on January 5 this year shows that the government
had allocated Rs 16 crore in the 2017-2018 fiscal for sanitary napkins. But not
a rupee from the budget has been spent.
The RTI also
shows that the budget for the same in 2016-2017 was Rs 16 crore, but only Rs
9.31 crore was spent on the scheme. This, despite distribution being stopped in
November 2016. In 2015-2016, the government had spent Rs 13.15 crore on the
scheme.
Sapna, a
Class XI student of Aruna Asaf Ali Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Tughlakabad,
said, “Earlier, the school monitor or the teacher would give us the pads. Now,
we don’t get them. I ask my grandmother for money to buy the napkins.”
In March
2016, when there were reports about the scheme being discontinued after the
vendor pulled out, the Directorate of Education (DoE) said it had asked the
company, with whom they had a contract, to find another vendor.
However,
since November 2016, the supplies stopped.
School
principals are also not aware why the scheme was stopped mid-way. “We have no
idea why this was done,” said A K Jha, principal of a government school in
Rohini’s Sector 8.
DoE Director
Saumya Gupta and advisor to the education minister Atishi Marlena did not
respond to queries on the issue.
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