14-hour ordeal without sanitary napkins spurs petition for pad vending machines on board trains

Tanvi Mishra's harrowing experience of using paper towels as she did not have sanitary napkins on a 14-hour-long train journey has given shape to a petition urging the railway ministry to install sanitary pad vending machines on board trains.

In the petition on Change.org, which has garnered almost 8,000 signatures since it was started three weeks back, Mishra, a 27-year-old engineer, details her experience on board the Gorakhpur-bound Humsafar Express from here.

"Didi aapke paas pad hoga kya? (Sister, do you have a pad?) Mere paas to nahin hai, tumhen lekar chalna chahiye na! (I don't have it, you should carry it yourself!)
Mishra said, "My periods started unexpectedly during a 14-hour long train journey. There wasn't any sanitary pad vending machine in the train either, that could rescue me in that dreadful situation. I somehow managed with my handkerchief and few tissue papers."
She said that installing sanitary vending machines on board trains would "empower millions of women."