PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: The Nana Kate Social Foundation will distribute around 15 lakh red stickers to around one lakh households in
Chinchwad to create awareness on safer and hygienic sanitary waste disposal.
The foundation started the drive in Roseland Housing Society in
Pimple Saudagar on Tuesday. The households receiving the red stickers will be requested to put these stickers on sanitary waste, including diapers, before giving it to housekeeping staff or sanitation workers.
NCP corporator Vitthal alias Nana Kate, president of the foundation, said, “Around 15 lakh stickers will be distributed in the Chinchwad assembly constituency, including New Sangvi, Pimple Saudagar,
Pimple Gurav, Pimple Nilakh, Pimpri, Rahatni, Chinchwad, Thergaon and other areas, in a month. The role of women is important in this campaign. So, we will take the help of women self-help groups (SHGs), women mandals and other organizations to reach the maximum number of families.”
Santosh Maskar, chairman, Roseland Housing Society in Pimple Saudagar, said, “We have our own plant to prepare compost from wet garbage. People tend to mix sanitary waste with regular trash before giving it to the housekeeping staff. The foundation’s initiative aims at removing this hazardous waste from the regular trash while sending the wet garbage for preparing compost.”
Siddharth Naik, treasurer of the society, said, “If the sanitary waste is not handled properly, it could lead to infection among those handling it, including housekeeping staff and contractual workers. Considering that these people are already poorly paid, they may not have the means to seek proper treatment for the infections resulting from callous disposal of the sanitary waste. So, there is a need for the people to wrap such waste in waste paper and put red stickers on it. Once the sticker or the red dot is put on the waste, the workers will automatically come to know that such waste should not to be opened and touched.”
The society will create public awareness using social media about the need for proper segregation of sanitary waste. “We propose to complete distribution of around 4.5 lakh red stickers in Pimple Saudagar and Rahatni areas in a week,” Maskar said.
About 40,000 crore used sanitary napkins are generated in the country annually. The SWaCH workers handle about 20 tonnes of unwrapped sanitary waste, including pads, diapers and bandages.
Picture for representational purpose only.
