The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) has started a campaign seeking donations for sanitary pad vending and disposal machines.
The authority said 23% of adolescent girls suffer during menstruation and the percentage increases during natural disasters such as floods.
Floods are an annual phenomenon in Assam, often striking in waves between May and October. They kill dozens of people and scores of animals — domestic and wild — almost every year.
While many are displaced by erosion of river banks in the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys, landslips are a bane in the hill areas during the monsoon months.
“Happy to see Assam taking proactive steps after declaring sanitary pads as an essential item last year. Good to see dignity in floods petition having a sustainable impact!” activist Mayuri Bhattacharjee said.
The ASDMA had a year ago added menstrual hygiene products to the list of essential relief materials provided by the State government at the flood shelters. A sustained campaign called Dignity in Floods led to this change in policy.
A group of women’s rights advocates, including Ms. Bhattacharjee, had in 2020 gifted a box of sanitary pads each to Himanta Biswa Sarma, then State’s Health Minister, and the ASDMA for “drawing the State government’s attention to the plight of women living in flood relief shelters”.
