Kolhapur: Adolescent girls in schools in rural areas can now find a safe facility in the pink room during their menstrual days that protects their privacy and keeps them informed about health and hygiene.A classroom in each school is painted pink with a bed, sanitary pad vending machine, disposal machine, water, a screen that educates girls about menstrual health and hygiene, lights and a wash basin.The pink room in nearly 60% ZP-run secondary schools in Kolhapur district is gaining acceptance. Of the 842 ZP secondary schools in Kolhapur district, 483 already have the designated room and 326 will have it soon.Meena Shendkar, education officer for secondary education, said, ” Pink rooms that we set up are not restricted to the menstrual days, but are for daily use when there is need to change for yoga, sports, or other cultural activities. The facility helps girls feel at home.”Some gram panchayats like Pirachiwadi in Kagal tehsil of Kolhapur district have built these rooms on their own. Sarpanch Kalpana Bhosale said, “The concept is to provide a secure resting place for adolescent girls. Medicines are available, as are jaggery and ground nuts for the girls to eat as per traditional practice for rejuvenation and to bridge nutritional deficiencies. The room is open throughout the year.”Kolhapur ZP’s chief executive officer S Karthikeyan took up the initiative after learning about similar initiatives in Japanese schools and in a few places in India. “Women teachers from the school attend to the facility. They have to interact with girls to remove misconceptions. The pink room is not just to ensure that the girls don’t miss school, but also their private space,” he added.If a woman teacher from the same school is unavailable, one from any ZP school in a five-km periphery has been assigned the responsibility of the facility. Anganwadi and Asha workers pitch in too.According to Unified District Information System for Education Plus report for 2024-25, the school dropout rate of girls in Maharashtra at their secondary stage of education is 7%. Absenteeism is high among girls in the menstrual days.Snehal Todkar, a Ratnagiri-based psychiatrist, said adolescent girls need a safe environment to dispel misconceptions surrounding period. “The girls and families need must be educated about menstrual hygiene, use of sanitary pads and taking care of their health to lower infection,” she added. She also stressed on the need to sensitize boys. box UN Shows The Way The global concept of ‘period-friendly schools’ emerged from UN-Water and UNICEF initiatives in the early 2000s to over lack of private sanitation and hygiene products was a leading cause of school absenteeism for girls in developing nationsThe primary goal is to provide a ‘home-away-from-home’ environment that removes the stigma and physical discomfort of menstruationIn India, techie Anthony Sajeeth began setting up pink rooms in govt schools across Karnataka-Kolar and Kurugal districts
