KOCHI: In a move aimed at ensuring a hygienic learning environment for girls, the district panchayat proposes to provide sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators to educational institutions governed by it.
The project, which is estimated to cost Rs.10 lakh, has already been cleared by the District Planning Committee (DPC).
“The project will be rolled out once the tender formalities are over. It will be up and running this academic year itself,” district panchayat president Asha Sanil said. As many as 65 institutions, including high schools, higher secondary schools, and vocational higher secondary schools, and technical and commercial institutes, under the jurisdiction of the district panchayat will benefit from the project.
Napkins will be manufactured at a unit run by women at Edakkattuvayal with the assistance of the district panchayat. The machines are designed to dispense napkins on inserting a five rupee coin. Kudumbasree members will be in charge of refilling the vending machines from time to time.
Ms. Sanil said the step was one among the many women-friendly initiatives planned by the district panchayat.
A project for the production of small clothing bags at an estimated cost of Rs.15 lakh is also on the anvil, and it is likely to get under way in a month. Under the initiative, two women from each ward will be imparted training in stitching cloth bags. These women will, in turn, train the others in each ward.
“Our aim is to provide a suitable alternative without which the prohibition of plastic carry bags will be ineffective. These cloth bags will gradually replace plastic carry bags. Besides serving an ecological objective, it will provide a source of income to the women involved,” Ms. Sanil said.
Meanwhile, the district panchayat’s initiative to promote backyard farming through neighbourhood groups for self-sufficiency in food and cultivation of pesticide-free vegetables has gathered steam.
“The idea is to take up farming in at least three cents in every ward. The entire rural district will be covered once the project reaches out to the entire 17,000 neighbourhood groups in the next couple of months,” Ms. Sanil added.
Under the project, seed from the district panchayat’s farms at Okkal and Maradu are being supplied to neighbourhood groups. “The vegetable produced could be used for consumption of those involved and where there is surplus the district panchayat is prepared to offer them marketing facilities,” Ms. Sanil said.
