Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to provide free sanitary napkins to primary and secondary school girls. On Tuesday, the Standing Committee approved a proposal from the Women and Child Welfare Committee as per which the PMC will provide eight napkins per month to each girl student between the age group of 11 to 19 years. 

Yogesh Mulik, Chairman of the PMC’s Standing Committee, said, “We have given an approval to the Women and Child Welfare Committee’s proposal to provide free sanitary napkins to girls students at PMC schools. We have sanctioned around Rs 50 lakh for it. In the second phase, the PMC will install a sanitary napkin disposal system.” According to PMC statistics, there are 25,864 girls students in the age group of 11 to 19 years. 

Currently, the PMC has 12 sanitary napkin disposal units. Each unit has a capacity to dispose of 1,000 sanitary napkins a day. According to PMC statistics, the corporation disposes of around 14,000 units per day. 
Suresh Jagtap, Head of the Solid Waste Management Department said, “We need to install sanitary napkin disposal units in 143 schools where girl students study.”

Notably, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had in February launched the State government’s ‘Asmita scheme’ to provide sanitary napkins at subsidised rates to girl students.