Lack of access to sanitary napkins is holding back women from contributing to Rajasthan’s economy
By Preeti Soni | January 5, 2024
In August 2022, when the Rajasthan government sent out a text declaring free sanitary pads for all women, 50-year-old Vandana Singh wasted no time crossing out the Rs. 600 expense she incurs every month to buy menstrual products for all the five female members of her family.
She has been working as a domestic help for about a decade. These benefits were significant for Singh who earns a salary of around Rs 10,000 and spends more than half of it on repaying loans.
“I went to the nearby Anganwadi with my sister a day after I got the message. They said there was no such scheme,” Singh said. She waited for a month and enquired again. This time, the Anganwadi worker asked her to submit the Aadhar details and come back again next month.
“Anganwadi didi (sister) gave me two packets of napkins once and then I got nothing for four months,” Singh said, adding that none of the women in her family was given what was promised. “Sometimes I have money to buy for everyone, and sometimes I don’t, so I have to take leaves.”
The I M Shakti Udaan scheme, launched in December 2021, promised to give free sanitary napkins every month to all the girls (about 2.5 million) in Rajasthan. After the pilot phase, the government extended the scope of the scheme in August 2022 to cover 12 million women along with 2.5 million girls.
Any woman between 10 and 45 years of age can get free sanitary napkins, according to a government brochure.
The Congress government allocated a budget of Rs.200 crore annually for the scheme, later increasing it to Rs.500 crore annually.
Almost two years after its launch, the number of monthly registered beneficiaries reached its lowest at 9,767 in November 2023, according to Rajasthan’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
“The demand for the scheme has come down following news reports of quality issues and there are supply problems too,” said an official who didn’t want to be named from the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
In 2023, the government distributed around 3% of the promised sanitary napkins, according to the official website.
“I got two packets of sanitary napkins last month when I put up a fight with her,” Singh said. She is one of the two million beneficiaries the Rajasthan government has reached till December last year.
The monthly registered beneficiary has seen a sharp decline between January 2023 and December 2023, from 2.82 lakh to 13,000 beneficiaries.
The policy aimed to improve menstrual hygiene by making it easier to access menstrual products. An indirect benefit for women, if implemented without system failures, would be to go to work freely without worrying about leakage of the clothes they use, according to non-profit organisations and Rajasthan government officials.
Singh says her sisters-in-law in the small town of Pali have never got any menstrual products despite asking multiple times.
The supply of sanitary napkins has always been irregular and there are quality issues too, according to five women who live in the Pabupura slum area in Jodhpur.
The start of the menstruation cycle is also the end of education and work opportunities for women in several parts of Rajasthan including Barmer, Jaisalmer and Kishangarh. Like Singh, Simar and her two sisters-in-law, who live in Jaipur’s Jawahar Nagar slum, were also among the targeted beneficiaries.
“I have never heard of the scheme,” Simar, who goes by her first name, said while standing in her two-bedroom apartment that she shares with nine other members. Her husband and two brothers-in-law pick garbage for a living and earn a daily wage of around Rs.100-Rs.200.
Simar said, had she known of the scheme, she would’ve asked a garbage contractor to give her a job.
“Contractors often deny women jobs because we take a week-long leave and if not, our leaked clothes create an embarrassing situation. I too want to earn and help my husband but I can’t because no one would give us a job.”
Both her two sisters-in-law have never used a sanitary pad. They were around 15 when their mother-in-law taught them how to use a ragged cloth. “Sanitary napkins are a luxury. It’s difficult to afford pads when we are struggling to meet ends,” Ruksana, Simar’s sister-in-law, said. She believes even if they go to the Anganwadi today to ask the Anganwadi centre they will not give them because they usually don’t have supplies.
Simar’s house is located four kilometres away from the Women Empowerment Directorate, a government department responsible for overseeing the implementation of the scheme. The officials at the department claim that all women are receiving sanitary napkins despite the declining trend in beneficiaries.
“The scheme has been successful and 1.2 crore women get the benefit. We do face challenges in tribal areas like Jhalawar. The literacy rate is low and it is difficult to reach out to those people.” said Rohit Kumar Sharma, Assistant Director, Women Empowerment Directorate. “We are doing what we can through campaigns.”
Emails, messages and calls to Rajasthan’s Women Empowerment Directorate and Integrate Child Services Department did not elicit a response.
Inadequate access to hygienic menstrual products exposes women to health risks like skin irritations and anaemia and often forces them to stay out of school and work, according to a primary health care provider in Jaipur.
In Rajasthan, the female workforce participation rate remains at 37.4% compared with the 77.8% male workforce participation rate, according to Periodic Labor Force Survey 2022-23.
Offering equal opportunities to women could help India add US$ 770 billion to its GDP by 2025, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report.
Non-profit organisations working in the tribal areas of Rajasthan say the scheme is usually on paper, and implementation is rare.
“The worst hit are tribal areas like Jaisalmer where the use of cloth is prevalent,” said Rajeshri Rathore, who runs upskilling programs dedicated to women at Sambhali Trust. “The scheme if implemented properly would encourage women to get permanent employment without being afraid of the leakage.”