In the city Bhopal, one step towards addressing an important women’s health issue has been taken.
Bhopal’s main railway station brought a gift for the women of the city and travelers. An automated sanitary pad dispenser has been installed at the Bhopal Junction. The machine, appropriately named Happy Nari, was set up on 1 January, 2018.
The Railway Women Welfare Association of Bhopal identified the need to provide hygiene products for women at the station, so it joined hands with a local NGO Arushi. For easy access and visibility, the dispenser was installed on Platform one near the women’s waiting room. At a low price of Rs 5, any railway passenger can procure two sanitary napkins from the vending machine. It is easy to use and maintains hygiene. While most railway stations equipped with ticket counters, passenger helpdesks, toilets, refreshment stalls and waiting rooms, Bhopal has made yet another necessity available for its women commuters by making low-cost sanitary napkins available at the railway station. On January 1 the machine was inaugurated by, the senior-most class-four worker in the station, Anjali Thakur, in the presence of railway officials.
, The association is paying all maintenance costs, and this is just a trial. If it gets successful, which seems like it is already, the welfare association will be adding more machines to other platforms at the station, as well as nearby Habibganj railway station. An incinerator in the women’s waiting room will also be placed to dispose the used pads in a safe and hygienic way. The dispenser is capable enough to hold 75 pads at any given time, and is refilled by a trained employee at the railway station. Interestingly , The machine had to be refilled eight times on the very first day of its inauguration, as over 600 napkins were bought by railway travelers and also by poor women living in slums around the station.So the response by the female passengers was excellent as within 8-9 hours only. This extra-ordinary response highlights the major requirement of sanitary napkin dispenser at the public places.
Bhopal Junction is one of a major railway junctions which connects station for pilgrims from Thailand, Nepal, China Myanmar, Japan, and other places who visit the Sanchi Stupa, around 40km away and other historical places in the state. More than 350 trains stop at the station daily, with more than half a million passengers making their way through. Bhopal Railway Division Public Relations Officer Siddiqui says, “ The machine was introduced as a pilot project with support from local organisations. If it goes off successfully, we will replicate this in other platforms and at the second Bhopal station of Habibganj,”
The similar models of dispensing machines are running successfully at some schools and hospitals by the state government.
Looking at the success rate of the machine on the very first day itself, The authorities will again collaborate with local sanitary napkin manufacturing associations and NGO’s to acquire pads at low prices. The railway authorities will also approach companies and organisation to make an investment through CSR activities for installing the machines.
