BOKARO: A state-run middle school at Marafari in Bansgoda under Chas block has set up a menstruation hygiene laboratory. Students can avail sanitary napkins free of cost, besides being counselled on menstrual hygiene. This is the first school in the district to have such a lab where students can also take rest if they experience pain or any other type of discomfort during their menstrual cycle.
Set up a week ago through donations, the lab is the brainchild of principal Manoj Kumar Jha, who was suggested the step by the UNESCO.
Jha said, "We are getting a positive response from our students and their parents. The lab will help our students, most of whom come from a humble background, to break the stigma surrounding menstruation."
The school has around 950 students, of which 450 are girls. "Some students experience pain or discomfort during their menstrual cycle and they leave school early. This hampers their studies. Now, they can take rest in the lab where a bed has been installed for them," Sunita Kumari, a teacher, said.
Social outfits are donating sanitary napkins to the school. "A machine has been set up which will dispense sanitary napkins after a coin is inserted in it. The coins will be provided by a teacher who has been made the in-charge of the lab," another teacher said.
"Coming from underprivileged families, we find it difficult to buy sanitary napkins. But now we get them from our school for free," a student of Class 8 said.
