Vellore :

Inmates of the Special Prison for Women in Vellore, apart from serving their jail term, are also receiving hands-on training in manufacturing sanitary napkins, which would be  disbursed to girl students of the government schools under the State government’s Free Sanitary Napkin Project to promote the health of adolescent girls.

The napkin manufacturing unit was established on March 28, with financial aid from the Confederation of Indian Industry and TITAN Limited that supply raw materials to the prison unit. Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), J K Tripathy said that the napkin manufacturing units were also functioning in the Central prisons in Puzhal in Chennai and Tiruchy.

Through this initiative the government aims to promote the health of adolescent girls and ensure reproductive health of women by providing napkins to the government schools, government hospitals and Primary Health Centres in the State.

Inmates serving life term have been engaged in production of napkins. A total of 58 life convicts are engaged in this project. “All the life convicts are trained in manufacturing napkins. A total of 15 life convicts have been engaged in manufacturing napkins for six hours from 8 am to 11.30 am and 1.30 pm to 4 pm on a daily basis,” Superintendent of the Prison, R Rajalakshmi told Express.

This one-month-old napkin manufacturing unit  produces 1,500 sanitary napkins per day, said the official. “We will improve the productivity in the coming days. We also ensure high quality and hygiene as the products are disbursed only after sterilszation,” said the superintendent.

Until four years ago the inmates in the Central prison had been manufacturing handmade napkin but its production came to a halt recently after the contractors failed to supply raw materials, particularly cotton, for manufacturing napkins from Mumbai. “Four years back we had been supplying the handmade napkins to two Central prisons for women and 11 sub-jails for women in the State. Now, again we have started production of the napkins,” said another official.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by J. Shanmugha Sundaram / May 26th, 2014