Patna: Rahul Gandhi is stepping into Bihar’s election battle with a strategy inspired by the film Padman, launching a sanitary pad distribution campaign aimed at connecting with women voters. Under the Priyadarshini Udaan Yojana, sanitary napkin kits featuring pictures of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are being distributed to women and school girls across the state.
The initiative, launched on Rahul Gandhi’s birthday on June 17 by Mahila Congress, is being promoted as part of Congress’s broader women-centric outreach. Alka Lamba, national president of Mahila Congress, began distributing the pads under this scheme, which also promotes the party’s Mai Behan Maan Yojana.
Congress claims 80% of adolescent girls in Bihar lack access to sanitary pads. The kits aim to raise menstrual hygiene awareness and are branded as Nari Nyay, or justice for women. Shobha Devi, a resident of LCT Ghat in Patna who received a kit, said most women still rely on cloth during menstruation, which leads to health problems. “This kit has been provided by Congress. The government is not providing anything like this, which women need,” she said.
The Bihar government runs Chief Minister Kishori Swasthya Yojana, providing Rs 300 annually to girls for sanitary pads, benefitting 22,58,425 girls so far. Sanitary pad vending machines have also been installed in 209 schools and public spaces across Patna, and since 2015, government schools have been distributing pads to reduce dropout rates among girls.
In 2023, Bihar’s first organic sanitary pad production unit, Myra, was established in Buxar’s Chausa block at a cost of Rs 60 lakh. Operated by Janani Jeevika Mahila Samuh, the unit produces pads to promote hygiene while creating livelihood for women.
Despite these schemes, Mahila Congress state president Sarwat Jahan Fatima accused the government of negligence, alleging that the Rs 300 aid has not been reaching school girls for months. She also criticised Bihar for lacking a dedicated ministry for women and child development.
“When we distributed these kits, women appreciated that even without being in government, Congress was giving them pads for free,” said Meena Kumari Nishad, district president of Mahila Congress in Patna.
Similar pad distribution campaigns have been launched by Congress in Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand under different names. In Bihar, the scheme was re-launched after Tejashwi Yadav first announced it on March 8, Women’s Day.
