Feb 1, 2012:  The report says: "In countries where menstrual hygiene is taboo, girls in puberty are typically absent for 20% of the school year."

Many girls drop out of school at around age 11 to 12. This absence of about four days every four weeks may result in a girl missing 10 to 20% of her school days. Last year, President Jacob Zuma acknowledged the need for pads in schools with a proposal that free sanitary towels should be supplied.

Portland, Jan 26, 2012: GladRags announced their partnership with Empower Women in Africa with a combined goal to bring educational and economic opportunities to girls and women in rural Africa.

GladRags, founded in Portland, OR in 1992, was conceived from the inspiration of the simple utility, earth-friendliness, and comfort of cloth diapers. GladRags quickly grew, and today remains a small company with a big presence, committed to promoting positive attitudes toward menstruation and making the environment a safer, cleaner place.

A key priority for women and girls is to have necessary knowledge, facilities, and cultural environment to manage menstruation hygienically and with dignity. To address these issues BRAC-WASH along with financial support from school authorities is constructing separate sanitary latrines for girls with menstrual hygiene facilities in secondary schools. For better management and maintenance of the provided facilities, ‘Student brigades’ and ‘School WASH Committees’ are formed in each school.

Kochi, Jan 12, 2012: The girls in all government schools in the state can heave a sigh of relief. As part of the School Sanitation Programme, sanitary napkin vending machines will be installed in all government schools from the next academic year.

New Delhi, Nov 29, 2011: To ensure menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls, the Delhi government has launched a scheme under which free sanitary napkins will be given to all girl students. The scheme called 'Kishori' was launched by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday.   This scheme will benefit 7.5 lakh girl students every month. "Delhi has become the first state to launch this unique scheme. Our government will spend R1.05 crore every month on this," said Dikshit.

Nov 20, 2011: In the battle-zones of restive Jammu and Kashmir, the government will gift sanitary napkins to girls to fight growing reproductive tract infections and help in maintaining menstrual hygiene.

Ten districts of Jammu and Kashmir have been selected among the elite club 107 of districts in whole of the country under the scheme for promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls (10-19 years) in rural areas.

Chennai, Nov 4: The State government on Thursday announced the implementation of a Rs.44.21-crore scheme of providing sanitary napkins to adolescents, young mothers and women prisoners in rural parts of the State.

Billed as first-of-its-kind in the country, the scheme will cover the section of women in the age group of 10 years to 19 years. It envisages the provision of 18 bags to every adolescent in a year at a rate of three bags every two months. Each bag would have six napkins.

Earning about US$ 150 a month, 60 girls  aged between 16 and 22, are manufacturing sanitary pads for women living in refugee camps in Galkayo, central Somalia, IRIN reports.

The girls are enrolled at the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD) and the sanitary pad project, which started in 2009,  is supported by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, UNICEF and other partners.

Kutch, Oct 5, 2011: In rural parts of Kutch, women neither use a cloth nor sanitary pad during menstrual cycle because of dearth of clothes, their traditional ghaghra and lack of awareness about hygiene.
Women in backward states use ash, wood- pulp, jute, stone and even plastic as sanitary napkins because of unavailability of clothes or such napkins during menses. In one such case, a woman used a glove with a hook as a pad and died of infection.
In rural areas, lack of access to hygiene leads to 30% to 40% of women in reproductive age of 13 to 40 getting infected.

Introduction