In a surprising case, which came to light in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar, thousands of sanitary napkins distributed by the Rajasthan Medical Service Corporation to Anganwadi centres and government schools were found lying burnt near the Babaji Ki Talai area of the town.
The logo of the state government’s UDAN scheme, batch number J. 421 and the date of manufacture (August 2022) was found on the sanitary napkins, and their expiry date was August 2025.
According to the information received from the sources, these sanitary napkins were brought to the forest in an auto, after which about 3,000 packets were burnt.
A team of Medical Department and Women and Child Development Department officials reached the spot after getting information about the matter but only found the remains of thousands of burnt sanitary napkins.
However, before the arrival of the officials, every effort was made to erase the evidence, said sources. However, officials found some sanitary napkin packets in perfect condition from the spot, on which the batch number was written. While these sanitary napkins belonged to the Udaan scheme, the case will be investigated on the basis of the batch number written on these sanitary napkins.
The state government had taken the initiative to distribute free sanitary napkins to women and girls between 10 years and 45 years from September 19, 2021, under the Udaan scheme. However why these sanitary napkins were burnt before reaching women and girls is a matter to investigate, said officials.
