Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles Smriti Irani on Thursday launched “My Pad My Right”, a project aiming to empower two million women and create livelihood opportunities for thousands of them.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Nabfoundation and Coimbatore-based Jayaashree Industries have come together to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene across the country and generate employment for women.
“Padman” Arunachalam Muruganantham, chief executive officer of Jayaashree Industries, said it was a pan-India initiative, where centres would be established in every district in all States and Union Territories, and women would be trained to make low-cost sanitary napkins. “Jayaashree Industries has installed 5,000 machines across the country through different agencies and organisations and has trained women to make low-cost sanitary napkins. Under the NABARD project, another 1,500 machines will be installed. We want to do this in a year from now,” he said.
Jayaashree Industries will install the machines and train the women, who can, in turn, train others. The pad-making units, like cottage industries, will provide livelihood opportunities to women. This will spread awareness and empower them. The project will train about 25,000 women initially, he said.
