Tripura govt to provide free sanitary napkins to school girls

Agartala: The Tripura government has given its approval to provide free sanitary napkins among adolescent girl students from class VI to XII under project ‘Kishori Suchita Abhiyan’ said Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

The minister said that the cabinet has given approval for the Tripura Menstrual Hygiene scheme to provide free sanitary napkins across all government schools.

“We will provide free sanitary napkins to a total of 1,68,252 adolescent girl students from class VI to XII under the school education department so that they do not skip classes during the menstrual cycle. This will incur an amount of Rs 3.61 crore for next three years starting from the current financial year,” Nath said.

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“In the budget speech, we had promised to provide free sanitary napkins to school going girls for good health and hygiene,” Nath said.

The minister said that a packet of sanitary napkins costs Rs 28-35 in the open market.

“ASHA workers buy from the National Health Mission at Rs 5 per packet and sell at Rs 6. Now, the state government will purchase sanitary napkins from the National Health Mission,” the minister said.

In another decision taken by the education department, the state government has adopted the ‘School Bag Policy-2020’ in accordance to the guidelines issued by the department of school education and literacy under the Ministry of Education.

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He said that several directions to regulate the teaching of subject and weight of school bags shall be followed across all government, government-aided and private schools.

“Homework shall not be given to students of class I and II. Students should not be asked to bring any additional books, extra materials and the weight of the school bag should not exceed 1.6-2.2 kilos for class I and II students and 1.7-2.5 kilos for class III to V students.

“For the students of class VI and VII, the weight of bags should not cross 2-3 kilos, for class VIII students 2.5-4 kilos, for class IX and X students 2.5-4.5 kilos, and 3.5-5 kilos for class XI and XII students,” Nath said.