Bhubaneswar: A Braille book was launched here on Wednesday to impart menstrual hygiene lessons among visually-challenged girls.

Around 2,500 such books will be distributed among young visually-challenged girls across the state.

An initiative by a social organisation called Practical Action, the initiative aims to enhance economic independence and social integration by empowering the disabled.

"Menstrual hygiene education is essential for every girl in this country," said Birupakshya Dixit from Practical Action.

"There should be sufficient and efficient efforts to ensure this for all girls irrespective of class, caste, economic condition and physical ability," Dixit added.

Earlier, Practical Action had produced audio books for visually-challenged young girls and video-books in sign language for the hearing-and-speech impaired young girls of the state.

The initiative helped more than 6,000 young girls.

"There are more than 2 lakh visually-challenged people in the state. Almost 30,000 of them are students. Braille books are not available for college students at all," Abhaya Mohanta, a youngster involved in the project.

"So, thousands of students can't study because of shortage of books. We wanted to nurture an equitable and inclusive environment and, therefore, came up with the idea of providing them with easier learning opportunities," Mohanta said.

Sunolo Sakhi, a knowledge delivery project designed specifically to bridge the knowledge gap of menstruation and adolescent hygiene practices, is also run by them.

They have adopted 60 slums in Bhubaneswar and 21 slums in Cuttack in various phases where discussions have made young girls vocal. Now, they are talking about menstrual hygiene and better ways to deal with it.

These young girls from the Sakhi Clubs created by Sunolo Sakhi are working as peers for others in their slums and schools.

This project is using radio as a medium to reach out to these young girls and addressing their queries live on air.