Hyderabad City to get its first sanitary napkin vending machine

Gachibowli: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in association Apple Homes installed its first sanitary napkin vending machine and an incinerator under the concept of 'She Need' at the front gate of Zilla Parishad School at Gachibowli on Wednesday.

Menstrual health is often ignored, especially, by the marginalised women due to lack of awareness which leads to all kinds of serious health risks. In order to promote health and hygiene of women, this project has been initiated, which is the brainchild Dr Neelima Arya, founder of Apple Home for Orphan Kids.

Earlier, the NGO along GHMC has taken the initiative to install public refrigerator under the 'Feed the Need' concept which enables anybody to keep food there for people to pick it up. At present, 30 refrigerators are installed in various parts of the city and this is her second such project, says Nideesh Pullarkat, the executive officer of Apple Home.

A small kiosk would also be built to protect the vending machine. The donor for the first unit of this project is Dr Neelima Arya herself. She will also provide sanitary napkins free for one year.

Pullarkat said the cost of this unit is Rs 2.5 lakh. He said the next unit would be set up at Satyam Theatre, Ameerpet, and the donor of the vending machine would be T Srinivas Yadav, the Minister of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Development Corp and Cinematography. "We are also planning to set up more 50 such vending machines in the city," he informed.

'She Need' kiosk would be set up for underprivileged women, who cannot afford sanitary napkins during their menstrual cycle. The 'She Need' kiosk will provide sanitary napkins free of cost and another feature of this project is provision of eco-friendly incinerator alongside the kiosk to burn away the used napkins and allied bio-wastes in an eco-friendly environment, says Dr Neelima Arya.

The machine would have 50 napkins, and any woman can pick it up. It is very easy to operate; one needs just to press the button and receive the napkins. This machine would come into operation after the inauguration ceremony on Friday. To monitor the machine, a woman would be employed by the NGO, and she can run any small business on premises free of cost, added Dr Neelima.