To promote menstrual hygiene amongst adolescent school girls, in 2011, Sheila Dikshit led Delhi Government started the Kishori Yojana, which provided free sanitary napkins to girls. However, since 2016, the scheme has been scrapped, despite the allocation of Rs. 16 crore.
This comes as a shock at a time when Delhi government has not only not clarified that the scheme is suspended, they are actually taking credit for promoting female menstrual hygiene through this scheme.
As per an RTI filed by NGO Matri Sudha, in the year 2015-16, Rs. 16 crore from the budget was allocated, of which Rs. 13.15 crore was spent and in 2016-17, Rs. 9.31 crore out of Rs. 16 crore allocated were expended. However, not a single rupee was spent from the Rs. 16 crore allocated in the 2017-18 budget. In November 2016, the school girls were made to sign a paper that they no longer will receive free sanitary napkins. In March 2016, when there were reports about the scheme being discontinued after the vendor pulled out, the Directorate of Education (DoE) said it had asked the company, with whom they had a contract, to find another vendor. However, since November 2016, the supplies stopped.
This has forced school girls to be sent home during their periods. Without the program, many girls in school do not get the support to buy sanitary napkins, effectively forcing the girls to miss school during menstruation.
