The Hindu 04.11.2009
Sanitary napkin vending machines planned at schools
Special Correspondent
| The objective is to ensure hygiene and prevent absenteeism |
Photo: M. Periasamy 
FOR HYGIENE: A girl student demonstrates the functioning of a sanitary napkin vending machine installed at the S.R.P. Ammaniammal School of the Coimbatore Corporation in the city on Tuesday. –
COIMBATORE: All 20 girls’ schools of the Coimbatore Corporation will have machines that will vend sanitary napkins, Corporation Commissioner Anshul Mishra said on Tuesday after a vending unit was commissioned at the civic body’s S.R.P. Ammaniammal School at R.S. Puram.
Costing Rs. 30,000, each machine would have a vending unit and an incinerator for used napkins, he said. The objective of installing these machines in the schools was to ensure hygiene and prevent absenteeism. Rooms for girls to take rest would also be constructed in all the schools, he said.
At present, three Re. 1 coins would have to be inserted into the machine to obtain one napkin. As the Corporation wanted to provide the napkins free of cost, it had now requested the vendor agency to provide tokens whose weight and shape were absolutely similar to that of the coin.
The tokens would be provided to the heads of the institutions. Students could obtain these from them, the Commissioner said.
Apart from the Commissioner, Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Deputy Mayor N. Karthik, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Coimbatore Range, B. Balanagadevi and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic), Coimbatore City, N. Kamini were present during the commissioning of the machine.
The napkin vending machine was one of the measures initiated by the Corporation to improve hygiene in its schools. It had also embarked upon improving the sanitary conditions in the institutions and this included a specific focus on the condition of the toilets.
The Corporation was teaching personal hygiene to students of primary schools. Slide shows on bacteria and viruses were being organised to point out to the students the risk from unhealthy practices such as open defecation and urination.