After two years, government restarts sanitary pad scheme
However, the scheme has not resumed in all schools yet, said activists who were monitoring the status of the scheme.
New Delhi: After a wait of over two years, the girls in Delhi government schools finally started receiving free sanitary napkins from Tuesday.
The scheme, called Kishori Yojna, a flagship programme to provide free sanitary napkins to girl students in Class 6 to 12, was stopped abruptly in March 2016.
However, the scheme has not resumed in all schools yet, said activists who were monitoring the status of the scheme.
“We have checked in a number of schools and the girls have started receiving the free supply. However, there are still a few schools in areas like Kalkaji and Sangam Vihar where the distribution has not happened yet,” said Arvind Singh, advocacy and policy head, NGO Matri Sudha.
The NGO had earlier filed an RTI query regarding the scheme, which revealed that in 2017-18, Rs 16 crore was allocated towards the scheme. but no money was spent. It also showed that Rs 16 crore was allocated in 2016-17 as well but only Rs 9.31 crore was spent out of it. In 2015-16, the government had spent Rs 13.15 crore under the scheme.