ACI Ltd has installed 50 vending machines across Bangladesh, offering sanitary pads at a cost lower than the market price to make menstrual hygiene more accessible

Maintaining menstrual hygiene is not easy in Bangladesh, where people often do not even utter its name because of the associated stigma and taboo. While young adults and adolescents associate it with something negative—or even dirty—parents are not really enthusiastic about talking to their daughters about menstruation either.

Menstrual myths have a long history in this subcontinent, but small changes are taking place to help break the taboo and create awareness about the need for hygiene for girls and women. 

ACI Ltd, one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh, has taken an initiative to this end: installation of sanitary pad vending machines on the campuses of different educational institutes so that female students can easily buy sanitary napkins whenever needed without any hassle.

The group has so far installed 50 vending machines across Bangladesh, offering sanitary pads at a cost lower than the market price to make menstrual hygiene more accessible.

Initially, in December 2019, ACI Ltd installed 10 vending machines on the Dhaka University (DU) campus, offering its Freedom-branded sanitary pads to approximately 12,000 students, taking into consideration that university students spend a significant amount of time on campus.

They were installed in all the female dorms, the washroom for females at the Teacher-Student Center (TSC) and at a few faculties of the university.

DU student Sayma Akter Promee, who is lodged at Ruqayyah Hall, said she no longer worried about carrying a sanitary pad as the vending machines offered instant service. 

"There were a lot of days at the end of months when I did not have enough money at hand and did not know when my menstrual cycle would start. The machines were useful during those difficult times. Moreover, I do not have much flow at the end of the cycle, so there is no need to buy an entire pack at that time. For the last few days it is wiser to buy three-four single pads from the vending machine," she said.

Echoing Promee’s sentiments, a student of criminology at DU, Dalia Yousuf, said students were able purchase pads from the machines during emergencies, even when the hall market was closed.

"The one in TSC is far more beneficial. At our halls, almost everyone keeps pads in their rooms, but we use it the most while we are on campus," she added.

Happy with the service but sensing the need for more of them, students said the vending machines needed to be installed at all educational institutes, markets and other places frequented by girls and women to ensure access to pads during emergencies.

"There is a sanitary pad vending machine in our hall, but there was no need to install that here," Nabila Noor Mumu, a Jahangirnagar University student, said, before adding that students desperately needed the vending machines at their departments as they spent most of their time there.

"We are now attending classes in person and I had an awful experience on campus a few days ago. I was in our department building when suddenly my menstrual cycle began. Luckily a friend of mine had a pad in her purse and let me use it,” she said.

Mumu said the only other option she had was to return to her dorm on a rickshaw, which would have taken at least 15 minutes, and by then she probably would have had blood on her clothes.

Meanwhile, some said the machines kept rejecting money if the notes were old or if they used coins, requesting an immediate solution.

Md Qamrul Hassan, business director of ACI Consumer Brands, acknowledged that there were a few constraints, and said it was the first initiative of this kind and had some issues but it was a work in progress.

“We imported 100 vending machines from China in 2019 but could not install them all due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

But he assured that installation work would continue soon.

He said ACI Ltd had no intention of making a profit from the service, which was why it was selling the pads at a lower price.

The service, which started at Dhaka University in December 2019, was later added to all female dorms of Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University, Eden College, Lalmatia Govt Mohila College, Central Women's College and Bangladesh University of Textiles (Butex).

Among the private universities, the service is available at American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) and Daffodil University, and at only BAF Shaheen College among the colleges.

Outside Dhaka, it is available to the students of Chittagong University and Rajshahi University. 

ACI Ltd plans to install 500 sanitary pad vending machines in the next 5 years across the country.