Indus Towers and Northern Railways together are set to improve menstrual health and women’s hygiene facilities for Indian Railways. Under this initiative, about 500 sanitary pad vending machines have been installed across 175 railway stations. The initiative will help women get free sanitary napkins while travelling around the clock. Here’s everything you must know about this important initiative by Indian Railways.
Indian Railways: Sanitary Pad Vending Machines Installed At Northern Stations
500 Sanitary napkin vending machines have been installed across divisions such as Delhi, Ambala, Lucknow, Firozpur, and Moradabad by Indian Railways, in partnership with Northern Railways and Indus Towers.
These machines have already dispensed about 3 crore sanitary napkins. They are equipped with an IoT-enabled monitoring system. This initiative makes menstrual hygiene products more easily accessible, especially at some of the busiest railway stations in India.
This installation is a part of Indus Towers’ CSR programme, Nari Samman. This programme comes under their broader initiative named Pragati. The goal of this wider project is to positively impact more than 150 million lives by 2030. The programme is completely focused on three things:
- Creating awareness
- Building Community support around menstrual hygiene and health.
- Improving access
Chief Operating Officer, Indus Towers Ltd., Tejinder Kalra said that the rollout took place on a large-scale. This shows the experience of the company in managing technology-enabled solutions across extensive public networks.
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Women Travel Made Safer and More Convenient
The General Manager at Northern Railways, Rajesh Kumar Pandey, mentioned that Indian Railways serves millions of passengers. These passengers include millions of girls and women who step out and travel depending on this network for education, work, and healthcare.
This initiative also supports the Government of India and its efforts to improve menstrual health awareness. Under the National Health Mission, menstrual health awareness and access have been made possible through the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS).
This sanitary napkin vending machine installation is in complete sync with the efforts by Indian Railways to make travel more comfortable and safe. The programme has actually helped in solving an important concern for women travellers.
These facilities were needed alongside the existing women’s reserve coaches and improvements in sanitation and station facilities.
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Summing Up
Indian Railways has installed 500 free sanitary napkin vending machines across various stations in the north. This initiative has become a reality only because of Indus Towers and Northern Railways.
