Despite a slew of government schemes aimed to promote menstrual hygiene among women and adolescent girls, use of sanitary napkins is still sparse in large swathes of Tripura. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS) in 2011 to provide subsidized sanitary napkins among the adolescents but it could not pick up well in Tripura. The baseline survey of ARPAN Society in bordering localities of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) in 2017 among the school girls studying the secondary level had showed a gloomy scene. The study found that 80% adolescent girls were aware about sanitary napkins but only 30% have actually used them. The reasons were multiple and numerous. However, broadly it was due to social stigma, problem of napkins procurement in the family (not because of finance) and scarce education on personal and menstrual hygiene. MHS was launched with an aim to reach 15 million girls aged 10 to 19 and in 152 districts across 20 states. However, the scheme has been plagued by procurement issues, high costs, lack of knowledge and lack of disposal facilities. The study shows that even after several years of its launch, the scheme couldn’t become popular in Tripura due to irregular supply of sanitary napkins and dedicated attention to remove all other barriers. Later on, under Rastriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan, a centrally sponsored scheme MHRD has also targeted to supply sanitary pads in schools and girls hostels besides, ensuring toilets. Further, National Council of Educational Research and Training syllabus on health and physical education for Classes I-XII provides adequate space to menstrual hygiene in school. Despite being a part of school education, the awareness about sanitary napkins is minimal.
With the support of OTPC, ARPAN initiated a project to distribute sanitary napkins among 4000 girl students in 22 selected rural schools in Gomati district for the period of 12 months from January, 2020. Besides, awareness camps have also been organised in the targetted schools to sen sensitized the students and the teachers about mensturation hygiene.
