*Representational Picture Courtesy s4.scoopwhoop.com

School girls will soon have a new shop to purchase sanitary napkins in Jharkhand.This was informed by Chief Minister Raghubar Das in Jamshedpur.

This shop will be set up by the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) for distribution among schoolgirls, Das said.

Already 15 Jamshedpur based SHGs have been engaged in napkin manufacturing work in Bagunhatu.,"The initiative is aimed at promoting self-employment',said Das..  

The government had during the recent budget session taken this decision to empower women working in SHGs,the CM told reporters yesterday after inspecting a sanitary napkin manufacturing centre at Bagunhatu in Jamshedpur East constituency, his home turf.

In fact,Tata Steel, under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, has been providing training to women in SHGs to make sanitary napkins.Prior to this,the state government claims to spend spend around Rs 25 crores annually to buy sanitary napkins from contractors."Now it will now procure them from these self-help groups', he said.

In Jamshedpur,the women involved in manufacturing the napkins were widely appreciated.As such the state government's move comes at a time when people have been actively participating in actor Akshay Kumar's 'Pad Man Challenge' on social media to promote menstrual hygiene.

Even the PM Narendra Modi had talked about 'Pad Man', a film starring Akshay Kumar and Sonam Kapoor.The film tracks the journey of social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine. 

-----------------------------Advertisement------------------------------------Abua Awas Yojna 

must read