DO you remember the first time
you purchased a condom? Or, the first time you mustered courage to ask for the
first packet of sanitary napkin? Almost 99 per cent of the readers, or may be
all of them, would remember the feelings of embarrassment, mixed with shyness
and a bit of coyness. Cut to 2017. The Department of Personnel and Training
(DoPT) has opened three vending and three disposal machines for sanitary
napkins outside three women bathrooms at its main office in the North Block.
Each transaction will cost Rs 5 and the machines are equipped to accept coins
of different nominations. Soon, more machines will be installed at DoPT’s other
offices as part of the ongoing ‘Swachchata Hi Seva’ campaign. The six machines
were inaugurated with much fanfare by two women joint secretaries in the
department, K Kipgen and G Jayanthi, and attended by scores of other women
bureaucrats and we hope the idea takes off. In our still-conservative society,
the women are more likely to glance around, ensure that no one’s looking, and
then quickly head towards the machines. Only a few are likely to approach them
brazenly and confidently without a care in the world. The reason is simple:
periods are believed to be ‘unclean’ and women are apprehensive and nervous to
reveal it. We hope that the Swachchata Abhiyaan removes such unclean thoughts
from the minds of both the men and women. More power to the women!
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