The Delhi High Court has asked the city government and civic bodies here to keep providing sanitary napkins to schoolgoing girls and those who dropped out for free and continue with their awareness programmes and schemes to promote menstrual hygiene.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar said, “We expect the respondent to continue providing sanitary napkins for free, continue with the awareness programs and also schemes like UDAAN”.
Pad-dispensing units
The Delhi government, represented by its Additional Standing Counsel Sanjoy Ghose, said it was providing sanitary napkins for free to girls in schools run by it. Mr. Ghose also said that the toilets for girls in its schools have sanitary pad-dispensing units.
He also said that the Directorate of Education had issued a circular asking all counsellors in the schools to interact with girls and spread awareness on the issue of menstrual hygiene.
The Delhi government also claimed that it was providing sanitary napkins for free in packs of 10 under its UDAAN scheme.
The civic bodies said the schools run by them are providing the pads for free to the girls and also carrying out training and awareness programmes.
The Central government said that education was a State subject and its role was only to provide finance for various schemes and programmes to the departments concerned to be used for the benefit of girls in schools.
Plea disposed of
After taking note of the steps being taken by the authorities, the High Court disposed of the petition by advocate Setu Niket, who had sought directions to establish a mechanism to provide education on menstruation and menstrual hygiene in all schools here.
The petition had sought a direction to the authorities to ensure that menstrual hygiene products were made available to adolescent girls in schools for free or at subsidised rates.
