Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS)

Launch and aim

• The Menstrual Hygiene Scheme (MHS) began in 2011 under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
• It started in 107 selected districts across 17 states.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare runs it.

Three objectives

• Raise awareness about menstrual hygiene.
• Give girls access to good-quality sanitary napkins.
• Ensure safe, eco-friendly disposal.

Freedays packs and the ASHA

• The target group is rural adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 years.
• Napkins are sold under the brand name “Freedays”.
• A pack of six costs just ₹6.
• ASHA workers sell the packs and earn ₹1 per pack.
• Each ASHA also gets one free pack every month for her own use.

Decentralised buying

• From 2014, procurement was decentralised.
• States and Union Territories now buy the packs themselves under the National Health Mission (NHM).
• Competitive bidding keeps the cost per pack low.

Funding route

• Since 2015-16, money flows through the State Programme Implementation Plan (PIP).
• Each state sends its own proposal, based on local need.

Reach

• In 2021-22, about 34.92 lakh adolescent girls got a napkin pack every month.
• The figure comes from the Health Management Information System (HMIS).

School policy

• A separate Menstrual Hygiene (MH) Policy covers school-going girls.
• It includes separate toilets for girls, safe disposal and menstrual hygiene lessons in the curriculum.

Why the ASHA design is clever

• The worker is asked to sell a product that her own household also needs.
• So a public-health goal and a personal benefit point the same way.

Not one ministry’s job

• Health and Family Welfare runs MHS.
• Women and Child Development handles related components.
• Education looks after school facilities.
• Drinking Water and Sanitation works on rural awareness.

Reading the NFHS numbers

• Hygienic-method use among women aged 15-24 rose from 57.6% (NFHS-4) to 77.3% (NFHS-5).
• Several schemes pushed this up together.
• So the gain cannot be credited to MHS alone.

A fixed price

• The ₹6 price has stayed the same for years, even as costs rose.
• It is a deliberate choice to keep the pack affordable.

What the government said

• On 17 December 2025, a Rajya Sabha reply listed all menstrual-hygiene measures. (Source: PIB, 17 December 2025)
• It cited NFHS-5: hygienic-method use among women aged 15-24 was 77.3%, up from 57.6% in NFHS-4.
• The Ministry of Education issued an advisory on 7 June 2024 to States/UTs, CBSE, KVS and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.
• The UGC followed with its own advisory to higher-education institutions on 18 March 2025.