When Kerala deemed the internet to be a basic human right, we thought they were jogging towards the future. With their latest decision to install vending machines for sanitary napkins across the city of Thiruvananthapuram, they are in fact sprinting and we can barely keep up. Over the next two weeks, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation will be installing these vending machines in as many as 60 places spanned across the city.

Covering most publicly populated places, vending machines will be found at the Central Railway Station, bus stations, shopping complexes,, Government Medical College Hospital, Government Law College, and Secretariat and Putharikandam ground to name a few, according to this report. In addition, as an extension of their 2014 project in which sanitary pad machines were installed in schools, the Corporation will continue to install these machines at schools located within their jurisdiction. Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar told the News Minute that “Rs 50 lakh has been earmarked for installing the vending machines in schools. Rs one crore has been set aside to launch the project in the rest of the city. The machines will be functional in a couple of weeks.”

The functionality of the vending machines is basic and cost efficient. Upon inserting Rs.10 into the vending machine, a person will receive a pack of 3 sanitary pads. For the first stage, 7000 sanitary pads will fill the machines and the first 500 will be given out free.

This is a very important and necessary towards sanitation and hygiene for a country in which women use ash, sand and straw because of a lack of accessibility to sanitary napkins. We applaud this move, and can only hope that the same is carried out through the rest of the country, and policy regarding the protection of women’s health finally finds the light of day.