India News

By Alka Pande
June 9, 2009

Girls in their teens in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, brought up to consider menstruation as something that is “unclean”, are now educating their mothers about how it is a normal part of growing up. This remarkable change has been brought about by a small sanitary napkin vending machine that has been installed in government schools here.

First of its kind, this machine has given many adolescents the confidence to talk openly about menstruation and menstrual hygiene – subjects that are still kept under wraps in most Indian homes. Even today many Indian mothers are too embarrassed to talk to their daughters about menstruation and many still continue to use pieces of cloth that are washed and re-used. It is a well-established fact that the dropout rate of girls in schools, particularly in villages and small towns, increases after they reach puberty, and the difficulties of managing menstruation is seen as an important contributory factor.