Indian Railways has taken a very important step keeping in mind the basic facilities of women passengers. Now women will not have to worry about menstruation while traveling by train. Northern Railway in collaboration with 'Indus Towers', one of the world's largest telecom infrastructure companies, has installed 500 sanitary napkin vending machines. This facility has been started at 175 railway stations from Delhi, Lucknow, Ambala, Firozpur to Moradabad division. The most important thing is that sanitary napkins can be obtained from these machines 24 hours absolutely free. So far, more than 3 crore pads have been distributed from these machines under Indus Towers' CSR program 'Nari Samman'.
Many times women suddenly need sanitary pads while travelling. Due to lack of proper facilities at the station, they had to face a lot of trouble. This entire system has been started to eliminate this problem from its roots. Indus Towers has implemented this under its flagship CSR program 'Pragati'. Its main objective is to spread awareness, ensure easy access, as well as support the community. This step is also directly benefiting the goals of the 'Menstrual Hygiene Scheme' running under the National Health Mission of the Government of India.
These are no ordinary machines. These are completely connected to Internet of Things (IoT) technology. This simply means that the control room will get an alert even before the machine runs out of pads. This will ensure availability of pads at the station at all times without any interruption. This monitoring system is proving to be very effective in avoiding the situation of machine being idle.
Northern Railway General Manager Rajesh Kumar Pandey has linked this initiative to the dignity of women. According to him, Indian Railways transports lakhs of passengers to their destination every day. These include a large number of girls and working women who depend on trains for education, job or treatment. Their comfort and safety has always been a priority for the Railways. This collaboration with Indus Towers is a big step towards making public spaces more inclusive for women. Such social changes in public infrastructure have now become the need of the hour.
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Indus Towers, Tejinder Kalra said on this occasion that it is a big responsibility to provide such a facility on the busiest public network of the country like Railways. The company has long experience in providing technology based solutions. The same experience is now being used to strengthen the social structure. When women get this facility without any hesitation at everyday places like railway stations, dignity will become a part of their daily routine. The company has set a target of bringing positive change in the lives of more than 15 crore people by the year 2030. This scheme is an important part of that bigger vision.
