Free sanitary napkins will be available in all the healthcare centres across the country, said Health Minister Zahid Malik.
Many women cannot afford to buy sanitary napkins, he said while briefing the media on Thursday (Dec 6).
“Women suffer from various types of infection and become victims of cancer due lack of sanitary napkins,” he said.
He added that the free sanitary napkins will be available from this year.
The minister said that all 150 health and family welfare centres in the country will be open 24 hours from now on.
According to the health and family welfare directorate, there are currently 4,628 family planning centres.
However, they can’t be kept open 24 hours due to lack of manpower. “We hope that the manpower crisis will be resolved soon.”
During the press briefing, it was revealed that 59 percent girls are being married off before 18 and every 113 children in a thousand become pregnant between age 15 to 19.
Moreover, death rate of teenage mothers are twice that of mothers above the age of 20. The mortality rate becomes five times for those under 14.
The minister said that in the last few years Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing child and maternal and child mortality rates due to education and vaccination programs.