Patna railway station to get sanitary pad vending machine
Attribute it to Akshay Kumar starrer movie, Padman’s influence that on February 28, Bihar’s Patna railway junction would become the third railway station in the country after Bhopal and Pune to have automated sanitary pad vending machine installed in the women’s toilet.
This would be the first of its kind move in East Central Railways (ECR) to promote women hygiene where the footfall of passengers at all major railway stations is abnormally high. According to railway figures, the junction witnesses monthly footfall of over 50 lakh passengers — on normal days — and over 80 lakh — during rush. The facility comes as a major boon for the scores of women passengers who face hardship in the absence of sanitary pads with them during menstrual periods in their journeys.
The railways has assigned Nav Astitva Foundation (NAF), a nongovernment organisation working on menstrual health and hygiene, to install the sanitary pad vending machine at the women restrooms. The decision was taken at a meeting between NAF officials and the divisional railway manager (DRM) of Danapur division, RP Thakur.
“This is our first small effort to address a large issue. Soon the facility would extended to three other stations in the zone, Rajendranagar Terminal, Patna Sahib and the Danapur junction,” ECR chief spokesperson Rajesh
PATNA:
Kumar said.
Bihar is at the lowest echelon when it comes to adolescent girls adopting hygienic methods for menstrual protection. Against a national average of 57%, only 31.3% young women in the 15-24 age group used hygienic methods, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-IV.
Among the districts of Bihar, Sitamarhi was the worst, with only 15.7% using hygienic methods for menstrual protection, followed by Araria (17.4%), Kishanganj (19.9%), Sheohar (20.6%), Purnia (21.2%), East Champaran (21.6%), Saharsa (21.7%), Madhepura (22.8%), Arwal (23.5%), Siwan (25.7%), Samastipur and Gopalganj (25.9), Sheikhpura (26.1%), Supaul (26.3%), Banka (27.9), Lakhisarai (28%), Begusarai (29.3%) and Katihar (29.8%). State capital Patna topped with 56.8%, as per the NFHS-IV data.
Sanjay Kumar Prasad, spokesperson of Danapur division, said the automated machine would be installed in the women’s toilet on platform number one.
Pallavi Sinha, chairman of Nav Astitva Foundation, said the automated machine would be dedicated to women travellers on February 28. It will have a capacity of vending at least 120 pads per day at ₹5 each.
“Earlier, we have installed an automated pad vending machine at Patna-based JD Women’s college,” said Sinha. On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, a similar machine would be installed at Patna airport. “An incinerator would also be attached with the machine for the disposal of used napkins. At Patna junction, the incinerator would be installed later,” Sinha said.