Chennai: To provide sanitary pads and ensure sanitary hygiene is maintained regularly by school going children, a vocational centre has been launched under the project Kannamma.
The 800 sqft centre with its sanitary pads manufacturing machine has the capacity to produce 6 lakh pads per annum. It has been initiated by the Rotary Club of Madras North in association with Dr MGR-Janaki College for Women on its college campus, R A Puram recently, a press release said.
Mylapore MLA R Nataraj inaugurated the vocational centre in the presence of Tamilnadu BJP general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan, Rotary International director (2019-21) Kamal Sanghvi, social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, Rotary District 3232 district governor G Chandrmohan and Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology Chancellor Mariazeena Johnson.
“The centre is a first-of-its-kind facility in Chennai, promoted by a social service organisation or a college. The objective of project Kannamma is to provide sanitary pads and ensure sanitary hygiene is maintained regularly by school going children. Over 20 per cent of production of pads will be distributed free of cost by our club to the government school girls and 80 per cent will be sold to other Rotary Clubs and NGOs at cost price. Our cost price is Rs 25 for a pack of 10 pads, whereas in the market the same would be higher for a pack of 10,” said Rotary Club of Madras North president M Ganapathi.
“The vocational centre has been established at a project cost of Rs 10 lakh including space, plant and machinery. We would be employing eight women including some speech and hearing impaired to manufacture these pads. The high-quality, yet low cost sanitary napkins branded Kannamma, will be now available at free of cost to 4000 plus students of Dr MGR-Janaki College for Women also,” said college chairman Kumar Rajendran.
It may be recalled that last August, this project was initiated with 82 government school children in Uthandi, on the outskirts of Chennai with a view that no girl child should ever drop out of school or miss an opportunity due to something as natural as her period. On an average, in India, 23 lakh girl children drop out of school for the lack for access to sanitary pads. Further still, they resort to unhealthy alternatives like dirty rags, hay and ash and do not even own a pair of underwear, the release said.