Fulling one of the poll promises made by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha 2019 campaign, the Centre will begin making sanitary napkins available at One rupee through the 5,500 Jan Aushadhi Kendras across the country.

The government had launched the ‘Jan Aushadhi Suvidha Oxo-Biodegradable Sanitary Napkin’ at Rs 2.50 per pad in 2018 but the price has now been lowered to Rs 1 to further increase affordability. The pads come with a special additive which makes them biodegradable on coming in contact with oxygen after being discarded.

About 28 million girls are reported to be leaving education because of lack of availability of good quality Sanitary Napkin pads at reasonable cost, Minister of State Chemicals & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya said at the launch.

The Kendras, setup under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) scheme aim at providing affordable healthcare to all Indians helping them gain access to cheap generic drugs. Over 1.30 crore pads have been sold at the PMBJP Kendras till 31 July 2019.

The minister also announced the launch of a ‘Janaushadhi Sugam’ mobile application to help people locate nearby kendras, direction guidance through Google Maps, search the available generic medicines, analyse product comparison of generic vs branded medicines in form of MRP & overall savings among other uses. The mobile application is available on both Android & iOS platforms.