Sanitary napkins distributed to adolescent schoolgirls

School education for girls in India faces two major challenges—convincing parents to enroll their daughters in school and ensuring that female students do not drop out prematurely. One of the key reasons why a large number of young girls drop out of school in India each year is that they do not have the resources to attend school during their periods. Sanitary hygiene products are often inaccessible and unaffordable for girls from deprived backgrounds. Scared of the stigma around menstruation and possible embarrassment, many families decide to let their daughters drop out of school once they reach puberty.

An effective way of reducing such cases is to make sanitary products available to young girls coming from deprived backgrounds. Such an initiative was undertaken on 4 September 2018 by the Higher Education Project at Savitribai Phule Girls’ School in Saki Naka. Sanitary napkins were distributed free of cost to 20 students to empower them to attend school even during their periods. Hopefully, such measures will be able to prevent many young girls from dropping out of school and leaving their education incomplete.