Tripura govt to provide free sanitary napkins to 1.68 lakh adolescent girl students

Agartala: Tripura government has announced an ambitious scheme to ensure menstrual hygiene for the girls studying in Classes VI to XII.

Under the scheme--Kishori Suchita Abhiyan--the state will provide over 1.68 lakh free sanitary napkins every month to the adolescent girls.

The government spokesperson and education minister Ratan Lal Nath said the scheme will be rolled out from next month through National Health Mission (NHM) and it will continue till March 2023.

Besides the girl students of 4940 government schools, beneficiaries of another thousand private and government-aided schools will be covered under the scheme to benefit to all the sections.

Nath said the council of ministers in a meeting last night took the decision of providing free sanitary napkins among 1,68,252 students of class VI to XII in all categories of educational institutions as per the commitment made in the last state budget.

The state will incur an expenditure of about Rs 3. 61 Cr to run the scheme for three years.

The education minister also stated that the students of classes I and II will not be given home tasks as per the direction of ministry of human resource development.

Also, students will not be asked to bring any additional book, extra materials to school.

The weight of the school bag should not exceed 1.6-2.2 kilos for class I and II students, 1.7-2.5 kilos for class III to V students, 2-3 kilos for class VI and VII students, 2.5-4 kilos for class VIII students, 2.5-4.5 kilos for class IX and X students, and 3.5-5 kilos for class XI and XII students, Nath added. (UNI)