Sanitary pad was a manifesto pledge – NDC

Deputy Western Regional Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Madam Araba Tagoe, has expressed disappointment with the negative reaction to the decision by the government to use part of the $156 million loan facility to purchase sanitary pads for onward submission to school girls in rural areas.

According to Araba Tagoe, though the decision to buy the sanitary pads for the school girls was a fulfillment of a manifesto pledge, the negative reaction which has greeted it has rendered the decision a bad one. To this end, she underscored the need for the government to come out to explain the rationale behind the decision and to procure the sanitary pads for onward submission to school girls in rural areas.

Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, the deputy regional Woman Organizer blamed the opposition NPP for being the party behind the negative reaction towards the government decision to buy the rural school girls sanitary pads. “I am disappointed the NPP see nothing good in the government decision to buy the pads for the school girls, I am very disappointed.

“This is because as a parent she supports the government’s decision and expressed the hope that every mother who knows the problem school girls in rural areas face in buying sanitary pads would wholeheartedly welcome the decision”. The expression of disappointment by the deputy Women Organizer comes after the Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang also expressed similar disappointment with an Accra radio station over the negative reaction the decision by the government to use part of the 156 million loan facility to buy pads for school girls had received.

She told an Accra radio station that people criticizing the decision “have no idea what goes on in the life of a young girl”. It would be recalled that the in The Chronicle yesterday edition, the paper published that the government had procured a World Bank loan, part of which would be used to provide free sanitary pads for school girls.

The approved $156 million World Bank loan facility would be used to support construction of Senior High Schools in the country and out of the money an amount of 15 million dollars will go into scholarship for over ten thousand students to pursue Senior High school education.

Part of that amount would also be used to buy sanitary pads for onward distribution to school girls free of charge. The policy to supply school girls free sanitary pads, according to Madam Araba Tagoe, was in fulfillment of the NDC campaign promise made some two years ago.

“This promise or policy is not new, we were trumpeting it on our political platforms and it is inside our manifesto and this is the time for us to fulfill the promise,” Araba Tagoe stated. Nonetheless, the disclosure of the policy by the government to supply school girls the free sanitary pads particular when the government had secured a loan for the exercise has received strong criticism and negative reaction from the public.