NHRC orders Raj govt to submit report on Udaan scheme irregularities in 4 months
Jaipur: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Rajasthan government to submit a report within four months on alleged irregularities in the Udaan scheme, an initiative by the Women and Child Development (WCD) department that provided free sanitary napkins to girls and women.
In a letter to the WCD secretary, the NHRC said the commission had received a complaint that the Rajasthan government's Udaan scheme has been non-functional since September 2024 due to administrative delays, and as a result, over 1.23 crore beneficiaries have been denied access to the essential service.
'This interruption poses a serious violation of women's fundamental rights to health, hygiene, and dignity. The allegation made in the complaint prima facie seems to be serious violations of the human rights of the victims,' the letter read.
A bench of the NHRC, presided over by Justice Priyank Kanoongo, ordered the Rajasthan WCD department to 'get the allegations made in the complaint inquired into and submit a report within four weeks of receiving the Commission's notice.'
According to officials from the WCD department, the Udaan scheme, which receives about ₹290 crore annually, has been completely halted since September 2024 due to a delay in the tender process between the Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Limited (RMSCL) and the WCD.
Under the scheme, launched in 2021, the Rajasthan government have distributed sanitary napkins to over 1.23 crore girls and women every month through 99,776 centres across the state. 'Each beneficiary receives 12 napkins per month,' an official from the WCD department said.
The highest distribution was recorded at Anganwadi centres in 2023, which catered to 95.58 lakh women, followed by upper primary, secondary, and senior secondary schools with 23.05 lakh beneficiaries. Additionally, 2.38 lakh college students under the commissionerate of college education and 23,961 women under the department of Social Justice and Empowerment also received the benefit.
Also Read: Scale up efforts on menstrual hygiene awareness in schools: Delhi HC
HT reported in April that the WCD had written a letter to RMSCL saying, 'The last purchase order under the Udaan Scheme was issued by RMSCL in July 2024. Since then, no new supply orders have been issued by RMSCL to the respective beneficiaries. As a result, based on the estimated demand from July 2024 to March 2025, there has been no supply of sanitary napkins, leading to a nine-month supply gap.'
'Due to the lack of sufficient storage space at distribution centres and the risk of stock deterioration from oversupply beyond the beneficiaries' monthly needs, it has been decided to consider the possible supply gap from July 2024 to March 2025 as a reference point. Accordingly, keeping in view the earlier demand submitted by the department, it has been decided at the appropriate level to obtain the supply of sanitary napkins from RMSCL for the first schedule of the new financial year 2025–26, as per the departmental plan and district-level requirements,' it added.
The department has initiated the process of collecting demand for the first schedule of the financial year 2025–26. The compiled demand will soon be provided to RMSCL so that purchase orders for FY 2025–26 can be issued based on the new demand under the departmental scheme.
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