Odisha government draws criticism over free supply of sanitary napkins to school-going girls under Khushi scheme

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Thursday came in for criticism from the Opposition Congress members in the Assembly over anomalies in implementation of ‘Khushi’ scheme announced for providing free sanitary napkins to school-going girls in the State. Under the scheme, girl students from Class VI to X are provided free sanitary napkins in Government and government-aided schools across the State.

The issue came up for discussion while Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena was replying to a question from Bhujbal Majhi (Congress) in this regard. Majhi demanded that the State Government should make arrangements to provide sanitary napkins to girls studying between Class VI and XII in both aided and non-aided schools.Majhi said around 2,67,400 girls are studying in non-aided schools while many of the 51 schools for children with disabilities are yet to receive ‘government-aided school’ status. He asked whether the Government would include girl students of these schools under the scheme. Sameer Ranjan Dash of BJD also wanted to know whether the State Government would take steps to provide sanitary napkins to girls who are not even enrolled in schools.

The Minister, however, said the State Government has not taken any decision with regard to providing free sanitary napkins to all girls. The scheme is being implemented by the Health and Family Welfare Department of the State at a cost of Rs 70 crore per year.After launching the scheme on February 26, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said about 17 lakh girls studying in government and government-aided schools will benefit from it.