This story is from July 10, 2016

IITian's novel approach provides solution to women at Central rly stn

R Kamala's last visit to Chennai started off on an embarrassing note.After alighting at Chennai Central railway station, she could neither find a shop to buy nor a facility to dispose off sanitary pads.
IITian's novel approach provides solution to women at Central rly stn
(Representative image)
CHENNAI: R Kamala's last visit to Chennai started off on an embarrassing note. After alighting at Chennai Central railway station, she could neither find a shop to buy nor a facility to dispose off sanitary pads.
But passengers will no longer have to face the ordeal as Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), an organization of Indian Railways that does engineering work, has installed an electronic sanitary napkin vending machine and a destroyer at the station.

Developed by an IIT-Madras alumnus, the sanitary napkin incinerator can burn soiled pads in to ashes within few minutes. The waste can either be used as a manure for plants or can be flushed out.
Setup along with information boards, the idea was also to break the taboo and raise awareness on menstrual health. The machines have been installed along with token and coin vending machines as part of CSR activity of RVNL.
V Ramachandran, an electronic engineer, who designed and developed the machine said, "the incinerator emits marginal fumes. It has an electrical heating system to burn the pads, after the removal of outer plastic layer. The ash can either be used as a manure or be flushed out. Women passengers can collect a plastic bag to dispose used pads and hand it over to staff. We have installed two vending machines at the station, one with a capacity of storing 120 pads and the other with 20".
Station manager V Umashankar said, "We installed the machines as many passengers try to flush used pads in the commode leading to blockage. "
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