A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to provide free sanitary pads to girls studying in classes 6 to 12 in both government and non-government schools.
Filed by social activist Jaya Thakur, the plea has further demanded separate toilets for girl students and their maintenance.
Apart from this, the petition has sought directions to the authorities to run menstrual health education programmes in every school across the country.
It said lack of proper Menstrual Hygiene Management resulted in high drop out rate of girls from schools and even prohibited women from taking up jobs.
The plea noted that several educational facilities and institutions were running without basic toilet facilities.