Hyderabad: After a long campaign by its female students, the University of Hyderabad (UoH) will finally install sanitary napkin vending machines in women’s hostels and health care centres on campus.
Anju Rao Guddugurki, a postgraduate student from the Department of Sociology, was responsible for launching a campaign demanding the vending machines. Anju says, “One evening, I began menstruating heavily. When I went in search of a sanitary napkin, I found that all the general retail stores on the UoH campus were shut. Upon enquiry, I was told that they had been shut since June after being caught selling expired products. There were no napkins available at the Health Centre pharmacy also. The girls living in the hostel had to walk 3 to 4 km to a store outside the campus every time they needed pads.”
“On August 4, the registrar informed students that sanitary napkins would be temporarily available at stationery outlets until 21 August, after which the general stores would reopen. Three days later, the administrators issued another circular stating that a committee had been constituted to make recommendations regarding procurement of three sets of sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators in the women’s hostels,” said Anju.
