Why in news?

• To address the need of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls residing primarily in rural areas, Government of India is supporting the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme.

Menstrual Hygiene Scheme:

• Under the scheme, funds are provided to States/UTs through National Health Mission for decentralized procurement of sanitary napkins packs.
• It would thus make its provision to rural adolescent girls at subsidized rates as per proposals received from the States and UTs in their Programme Implementation Plans.

Objectives:

• Increasing awareness among adolescent girls on Menstrual Hygiene
• Improving access to and use of high quality sanitary napkins by adolescent girls in rural areas
• Ensuring safe disposal of Sanitary Napkins in an environmentally friendly manner
• Provision of funds to ASHAs to hold monthly meeting with adolescents to discuss issues related to menstrual hygiene.

Other initiatives:

• A range of IEC material has been developed around Menstrual hygiene Scheme, using a 360 degree approach to create awareness among adolescent girls about safe & hygienic menstrual health practices.
• It includes audio, video and reading materials for adolescent girls and job-aids for ASHAs and other field level functionaries for communicating with adolescent girls.
• ASHAs across the country are trained and play a significant role in promotion of use and distribution of the sanitary napkins.
• Department of Health Research, under the Ministry of Health, is involved in assessment of all newer, alternative, environment friendly menstrual hygiene products to look into their safety and acceptability features.