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MANGALORE: To maintain cleanliness on school campuses, the Dakshina Kannada district Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has started constructing napkin incinerators in toilets of government higher primary schools to help girl students dispose napkins in a hygienic way.

Last year SSA constructed these units in five schools and distributed free napkins to 10,200 students in DK district. The department also conducted a workshop for the students about maintaining personal hygiene during menstruation. N Shivaprakash, deputy project coordinator of DK district, told TOI that construction of these incinerator units will be completed within a month in 651 higher primary schools.

Instead of haphazardly throwing used napkins, students have to just drop the napkins in these units and later they are incinerated using firewood, said Shivaprakash. These used napkins are incinerated once a week, he said. The department took this initiative as many students who are not aware of the manner in which to dispose the napkins started discarding them in the toilet. "Due to unscientific disposal of napkins by students, the toilets were getting clogged," he added.

Observing that girl students appear to be attaining puberty at an early age or by the time they are in sixth standard, Shivaprakash said the move to provide them sanitary napkins and their safe disposal makes all the more sense.

"Initially we thought of equipping schools with electrical napkin incinerator. But we did not do it as these incinerators are expensive. The cost of one incinerator is around Rs 25,000," he said. Also servicing and maintenance of this incinerator is expensive, he added.

But the cost for constructing one napkin burning unit ranges from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000, said Shivaprakash. This year SSA will frequently conduct workshops on maintaining good health exclusively for girls to prevent menstrual disorder, he said.