Bhopal, 9 January: Bhopal station has served an excellent example of providing comfort to the passengers, specially the women. In a remarkable move, the station has made low-cost sanitary napkins available through a vending machine. Aptly called the Happy Nari, the vending machine makes two sanitary napkins available at a cost of just Rs. 5.

The Railway Women Welfare Association of Bhopal started this initiative at the start of new year. It was so happily welcomed that about 600 napkins were dispensed in just 9 hours of the installation. They named it Happy Nari and it has a capacity of 75 sanitary pads. A local NGO Arushi provided the napkins for the first day. The total cost of setting this vending machine, employing the staff for it and the napkins overall came to Rs. 20,000 only. NGOs are also training railway staffers to maintain and refill these machines.

It is not just serving convenience to the commuting women but women from nearby slums also can take advantage of this facility. So, it is also helping the lower sections of society. A more commendable effort is yet to come when the station also plans to get an incinerator for the safe disposal of the used pads. This system is expected to be there by the end of this month.

After looking at the success of this initiative, the Bhopal Railway authorities plan to install similar machines across the state. Their aim is to get local sanitary napkin manufacturing associations and NGOs on board to get low-cost pads more accessible for the women. Bhopal’s Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Shobhan Chaudhri said, “The vending machine is a very noble effort taken to ease the traveling experience for women. Considering the minimal price of the napkins even the lower sections of the society can use them.”

This noble move needs to be highly appreciated and widely adopted across the country. In times when we constantly seek women empowerment and try to reduce the taboo around menstruation, such an initiative proves to be a definite highlight. Time to reach and make more and more women happy with Happy Nari.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2018 06:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).