Thane: India Gets Its ‘First Period Room’, Facility Aims To Promote Menstrual Hygiene

Civic officials in Thane are leading the charge when it comes to addressing women’s issues as local authorities recently built a unique “period room” in the city.

The room has been set up at a public toilet near a slum in Shanti Nagar locality of Wagle Estate area, with an aim to ease slum-dwelling women’s menstruation woes and provide them with hygienic sanitary facilities.

Claimed to be the first-of-its-kind initiative at a public toilet, the facility is equipped with a urinal, jet spray, toilet roll holder, soap, running water and a dustbin, a civic official told PTI on Sunday.
The much-needed facility, set up by the Thane Municipal Corporation in collaboration with an NGO, was opened for women on Monday.

Colourful pictures with messages advocating good hygiene have been painted on the outer wall of the toilet block.

"This Rs 45,000 low-cost facility will be replicated in all 120 community toilets in the city," the official said.

He said women living in small houses, which do not have a separate bathing section, many a times find it difficult to change sanitary napkins during periods. This facility will be a boon for such women and go a long way in promoting good hygiene, the official said.

There are no public toilets for women in most of the localities and this facility will help provide them some relief, he said.

(With PTI inputs)