Taking note of the difficulties faced by the women staff and students of the institution, the first woman chancellor of Gujarat University, Dr Nirja Gupta, has decided to set up the sanitary pad vending machines across the campus.

With an estimate of 600 to 800 pads used a day, the university campus will have 45 such machines at different places in the campus.

The University will collaborate with an NGO for the instalment of the machines, and they are expected to be operational in the second semester right after the Diwali holidays.

Supreme Court’s order

In 2022, Dr Jaya Thakur, a social worker, had filed a writ petition to the Government of India for the provision of free sanitary pads to every female child between classes 6 to 12. She also demanded the need for separate toilets for women in all government aided and residential schools.

Following that, the court ordered, “it would be appropriate if the union government engages with all the state governments and union territories to ensure that a uniform national policy is formulated with sufficient leeway for them (states and UTs) to make adjustments, based on the prevailing conditions in their territories.”

However, despite SC’s order, no uniform policy has been implemented, and most of the schools lack such facilities for women staff and students.

In the past, vending machines for sanitary pads have been installed in Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and Gujarat Technological University.

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