Civic officials, ruling party apathetic towards women’s health, sanitary pad vending machines not operative for a year

On Mar 2, 2022

Pune : NpNews24 Online – Pune Corporation | The Smart Maitrin project launched by the PMC health department a couple of years ago has not been functioning. The sanitary napkin vending machine and incineration plan was started on the CSR basis. Crores of sanitary napkins are dumped along with solid waste for the past one year. Crores of rupees are spent on solid waste management. However, the civic administration and political parties appear to be apathetic towards women’s health issues.

The PMC signed a contract with the Action Committee against Unfair Medical Practice in December 2019. The project comprised installing sanitary napkin vending machines at public places such as colleges, schools and hostels. Used napkins were to be collected and disposed of at the incineration plant. The organisation was prepared to run this project on the CSR basis. Earlier, the solid waste management department had invited expression of interest for the project. Five companies had submitted their proposals. The said company was chosen from them.

The company installed vending machines at 270 places. Used napkins were being disposed of at 12 incineration plants already set up by the civic body. The company had deployed 40 workers for the same. The project ran well for some months. Girl students and women found the vending machines useful. At the same time, the quantity of sanitary napkins dropped in the solid waste. This also helped the city to improve its rank in the Swach Sarvekshan.

Later, schools and colleges were closed during the lockdown. This hit the project. However, sanitary napkins are being dumped, along with other solid waste, as there is no other alternative system to process used sanitary napkins. In the absence of an alternative, the PMC may slide down in the rank in the Swach Sarvekshan this year.

Over a crore sanitary napkins are dumped, along with other solid waste, in the city every month. It takes 600 years to degrade a sanitary napkin. This underlines the gravity of the issue.

The Action Committee against Unfair Medical Practice closed the project within a year. The NGO faced a financial crunch as CSR funds dried during the pandemic. Salaries of its staff amounting to Rs 20 lakh have still not been paid.

MNC Procter and Gamble has expressed willingness to run the project. It will spend money on it for the first three years. The standing committee approved this proposal recently. A unit will be built on the premises of Ramtekdi garbage dump.

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