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The Lesser Known Truth About Free Sanitary Napkins

This story is a part of Youth Ki Awaaz’s campaign #IAmNotDown to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene and start a conversation on how sanitary pads can be made more affordable. If you have an opinion on how we can improve access to menstrual hygiene products, write to us here.

The campaign about tax-free napkins is one crucial step in providing the basic necessary amenity to girls while they are on their period. Many headlines pop up now and then about declaring this and that but very few of us know that government already provides sanitary napkins at minimum cost.

Yes you read this right I am from Maharashtra and at least here in government hospitals, you get sanitary napkins at subsidised rates but most of us are unaware of this due to the non-advertising policy of government where no one will tell you about these provisions.

I recently came to know this when my aunt bought 12 packets of these napkins from a nurse who works in a rural government hospital that cost ₹7 per packet containing 7 pads. I also discovered from the nurse that many people are shy to take these from hospitals, others simply don’t know that you get them in hospitals.

Menstrual hygiene should not remain limited to only the educated ones but should reach to all the girls out there who are unaware of how dangerous the problem can be if you don’t maintain hygiene. After knowing the fact that sanitary napkins are available in government hospitals, I informed every girl I know around me and even some girls who use cloth so that they can benefit from these and I am writing this post so that you too should benefit from this and pass this information on to every girl you know.

After some research, I also found that Gujarat government, as well as UP, also have this facility that provides free/cheap sanitary napkins. I hope that this post reaches to every girl out there so that she can take benefit from this. If you are reading this please share this as much as possible because your one step can be useful to thousands of girls out there.

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