Use CSCs to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene: Prasad

Union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad urged the Uttar Pradesh government to leverage the reach of common service centres (CSCs) for spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene in the most populous state.

Prasad said the services of 9000 women working in 83000 CSCs in rural pockets should be used to propagate menstrual hygiene – which is among the primary causes of high dropout of girls from college.

“There are 12 sanitary pad rural manufacturing units run by CSCs in UP and by April another 100 units would come up. Sanitary napkins at Rs 5 per piece are being sold through these CSCs and I would like the state government to encourage it further because a clean India is healthy India,” the minister said at the UP investors’ summit on Thursday.

Prasad said sanitary pad manufacturing units are being set up in all blocks of the country through CSCs. He urged deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma to visit these CSCs, run by independent village-level entrepreneurs who provide government services in rural areas, to further encourage focus on menstrual hygiene.

He said the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) would set up a centre of excellence at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) to promote health care and e-hospital concept.

“In Uttar Pradesh we have leveraged technology to connect 21 hospitals with e-hospital concept. Another 5 medical colleges are being added,” he said. The e-hospital concept that Prasad referred to is an open source health information management system that integrates clinical, administrative and other medical facilities online.

Lauding UP’s direct benefit transfer scheme to transfer subsidy and loan waiver amount of lakhs of farmers in the state, Prasad also spoke of how technology has helped government reduce human interface, bring transparency and save money.

“Can you believe it that we have saved Rs 32 crore in purchase of dustbins alone? From e-scholarships to digital payments we have realized the immense benefits of technology,” he said.

He also spoke of developing Noida and Greater Noida as major global market of mobile manufacturing and said he has cleared files of two leading mobile manufacturers to make Rs 7000 crore investment in Noida and how he has brought Taiwanese investment and expertise to Noida.