No sanitary napkin disposal mechanism at CSIR institutes, Woman researcher tells Minister

A PhD student at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, National Chemical Laboratory, while interacting with Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday, raised female hygiene issues at CSIR institutes.

Pune (Maharashtra): A PhD student at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), while interacting with Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday, raised female hygiene issues at CSIR institutes. Minal Bhalerao, who is pursuing PhD in CSIR NCL, Pune, complained about the lack of a proper mechanism for the disposal of sanitary napkins across the CSIR institutes.

Minal Bhalerao said, "It is regarding a few woman issues, I do not know whether it is the right platform for it. Recently, we came across that there are many CSIR institutes which do not have proper sanitary pad disposal machines. So what the Ministry of Science and Technology is doing for the betterment of the female researchers."

Responding to the questions raised by the woman researcher, Singh said, "Of course, that is an issue. I think that also has a bearing on the fact that there were lesser female researchers in the past. As the number of female researchers has been increasing, that will also be taken care of. In fact, a few years back, I went to one of the leading medical institutes, and I found that there was no decent toilet for women".

He said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made awareness about toilets. "It has lot to do with female morbidity and all kinds of urinary infections etc. I said atleast arrange for a toilet because what about the doctors who are going in the night shifts? But now there is an increasing awareness about it now and it has been taken care of," Singh stated.

Jitendra Singh was on his two-day visit to CSIR NCL, Pune where he inaugurated Bisphenol- A Pilot Plant facility at CSIR-NCL facility and addressed the staff and students of CSIR-NCL. In his address, the Minister highlighted the role of CSIR in innovations and in setting up startups and promoting them. He talked about the key initiatives the government has taken up, including the Digital Health, Hydrogen Mission, Aroma Mission, Deep Ocean Mission, etc., which have laid the road map of new India. He pointed out that we must revisit our approach to understand how we cultivate and sustain in the coming times and strengthen the startups. (ANI)