The prison department’s support has come in as a shot in the arm for Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for according a thrust for manufacturing low-cost sanitary napkins by utilising the labour of jail inmates.
The CII, said its Tiruchi Zone Chairperson Rani Muralidharan, has been sounded by the department about the possibility for dovetailing cost-effective manufacture of sanitary napkins by prison inmates with the State Government’s scheme for supplying sanitary napkins free of cost to adolescent students of government and aided schools, young mothers and women prisoners.
Last November, the State Government earmarked Rs. 44.21 crore for implementing the scheme. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa even constituted a committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Health) consisting of officials from health, social welfare and school education departments to implement the scheme.
According to Ms. Rani Muralidharan, who is also the president of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Tamil Nadu (WEAT), which has over the years imparted a number of training programmes to members of self-help groups to manufacture sanitary napkins, jail inmates would be paid remuneration for engaging themselves in the productive activity.
As a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative, the CII last week initiated income generation activities in Tiruchi Central Jail and sub-jail for women. Five gem cutting machines were installed at the sub-jail and the CII was looking forward to establish a centre of excellence in fabrication in the central jail premises.
Member units of BHEL Small Scale Industries’ Association were willing to offer training to the inmates. The idea, she said, was to integrate the inmates into the mainstream society and enable them lead respectable lives after their release.
For manufacture of sanitary napkins fulfilling quality parameters, the Tiruchi-based MHMC (Menstrual Hygiene Management Consortium) has been working on standardising the product with cost advantage over the ones marketed by FMCG companies. The MHMC had in recent years conducted a number of training programmes for women self-help groups with the support of UNICEF.
