BAJURA, DECEMBER 6

It has been very difficult to manage sanitary pads and girl-friendly toilets in the community and private schools of Bajura.

Girl students have been facing problems due to the lack of sanitary pads inside schools even though the government has provided the pads to schools for free. Schools in Bajura started providing pads to girl students from this year even though the government had decided to this effect last year.

A student at Jalpa Secondary School of Badimalika Municipality said girl students could not use pads due to the lack of girl-friendly toilets.

There are 274 community and private schools in Bajura.

No school has managed girl-friendly toilets. Bipana Thapa, a student at Trishakti Secondary School said it was very difficult to use the pads due to lack of proper places.

A girl student at Kanda Secondary School of Khaptadchhededaha Rural Municipality said girl students did not attend school for three days during their periods. She said the toilets in the schools were useless as there was no suitable place to change the pads.

A staff at Badimalika Municipality Education Department Ram Katwal said it was very difficult to manage pads in all the schools due to the lack of suitable places. He said the schools had been planning to construct girl-friendly toilets. Civil leader Pradip Raj Jaisi said the distribution of pads was limited only to paper.

Most of the menstruating girls in Bajura are still bound to stay in Chhaupadi huts.