The Inner Wheel District 321, comprising 48 Inner Wheel Clubs of women Rotarians in Tamil Nadu and Kerala would focus on menstrual hygiene and help poor girls and women with affordable menstrual pads this year, newly elected Inner Wheel District Chairperson Lakshmivarthini Rajeswaran has said.
Addressing a felicitation function organised by the Inner Wheel Club of Ramnad here on Tuesday, Ms. Rajeswaran, who had been serving in the Inner Wheel here for more than a decade, said the prime projects of the Inner Wheel District 321 this year would be to create awareness among poor and rural school students of menstrual hygiene and contribute for the abolition of single use plastic items.
She said the clubs would set up at least two incinerators, each costing about ₹21,000 in government and government aided schools and educate the adolescent girls on hygienically disposing of the used menstrual pads. The clubs would also set up vending machines to make available pads at affordable price to the girls who hailed from poor and rural backgrounds, she said. Girls could drop a five rupee coin and get a pad from the vending machine, she said.
Two incinerators had been established at Municipal Girls Higher Secondary School here and Parvathavarthini Girls Higher Secondary School in Rameswaram, where she worked as Postgraduate Assistant Teacher, Ms. Rajeswaran said. More government schools would be covered under the project as and when the district received sponsors.
The District would also work towards addressing the menace of use-and-throw plastic items by distributing cloth bags. It would serve the twin purpose of providing an alternative to single use plastic carry bags and popularise the Inner Wheel logo, she said.
Ms. Rajeswaran, who replaced Rohini Srinivasan from Kerala, would serve as Chairperson of Inner Wheel District 321 for one year. Chinnadurai Abdullah, Assistant Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator, APJM Nazeema Marakayar, niece of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, and Madhuram Aravindaraj also offered felicitations.