Imagine waking up in a bed soaked in blood. Imagine borrowing a friend’s jacket to cover up your stain. Imagine not going to school every month for five days.
Sounds horrible doesn’t it? This is the life of thousands of girls in India. 66% of India’s female population begin menstruation completely unaware and unprepared.
“When I first got my periods, I felt I was about to die. I didn’t know what it was“. This is the case of thousands and thousands of women across the country. Lack of toilets, societal stigma, and inability to afford pads are the real issues. This is called period poverty.
India has around 355 million menstruating women but according to the data collected by the ministry of health, only 18% of women and girls have access to sanitary napkins. This is an incredibly alarming number and the government needs to work on it.
On 24th November 2020, Scotland passed the Period Products (Free provision) Act and has made history as it is the first country to eliminate period poverty. The Scottish Legislature has taken a remarkable step by making period products free for all women and I think other countries should also follow their footsteps. The legislation makes tampons and sanitary pads available at all educational institutes, community centers, youth clubs, and pharmacies. This bill will cost the government £24.1 million, which is 214 crore rupees. The Period Products (Free Provision) Scotland Bill passes with 112 votes in favour, no opposition, and one abstention.
Pic Credits: edition.cnn.com
Monica Lennon, the bill proposer has been spearheading the grassroots campaign for the past four years and introduced the Bill in April 2019; the goal is to eliminate “period poverty“. Lennon further told the Parliament in a video message that it marked “a proud day for Scotland and a signal to the world that free universal access to period products can be achieved“. First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, hailed the move and said she was proud to vote for the historic legislation, which is an “important policy for women and girls“.
Here are a few reasons why we need to make period products free:
- Easy Accessibility:
As mentioned earlier, only 18% of women and girls have access to sanitary napkins. The rest use a dirty piece of cloth. Most people who use cloth have the mindset of “Periods are dirty and so all you need is a dirty piece of cloth”. They end up washing the same cloth and reusing it.
The concept of “menstrual hygiene” doesn’t exist for them. If pads are free and are easily accessible then, women and young girls won’t have to go through this struggle. - Breaks Social Stigma about Periods:
If you are woman, I’m sure you’ve heard things like you aren’t allowed to enter the kitchen and temples at least once in your life. The taboos about periods are so worse that you can’t buy a pack of sanitary pads without covering it with newspaper or a black plastic cover. These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to taboos about periods.
It is therefore no wonder that the most famous brand of sanitary napkins in the Indian market is called “Whispers.” The name is indicative of why girls are wary of talking about periods openly. - Improves Poor Hygiene Standards:
For most rural women, menstrual hygiene is nonexistent. The biggest factor in this is water scarcity. They use the limited available water they get for cooking and cleaning but not on themselves and end up going days without bathing and reuse their unwashed clothes. They also reuse the same dirty rag and pad. This leads to a lot of UTIs (Urinary Tract Infection) and diseases such as cervical cancer.
And India accounts for 27% of the world’s cervical cancer deaths, which is almost twice the global average, according to World Health Organization data. - Period Poverty in India affects Education:
On average, girls miss five days of class each month due to shame surrounding their periods or lack of sanitary products. This contributes to the number of girls who drop out of school each year, which is around 23 million. Girls that leave school have stunted careers and are most likely to become child brides. And India has the highest number of child brides in the world with 15.5 million children being married by the age of 18. - Supports Low-Income Families:
A pack of sanitary pads costs somewhere between 100 and 250 rupees. Most low-income families cannot afford this. There are non-profit organizations that are making sanitary pads available for prices as low as 10 rupees but they only cover specific areas in the country.
It is the duty of the government to ensure that women and girls get the right menstrual hygiene. The government has been providing free condoms in hospitals for decades to control population growth. They should use the same infrastructure to provide women and girls with sanitary products as well.
Can India follow Scotland and make sanitary products free?
The answer is Yes. India is very much capable to do so. India has a long way to go as in 2017, the Indian government labeled menstrual products as luxury goods. Quickly after the announcement of the new tax, the public gathered to campaign against it. In July of 2018, the government removed the tax, thus making sanitary products more accessible to low-income households.
As Monica Lennon has emphasized: “These are not luxury items. They are indeed essential, and no one should have to go without period products.”
Making period products free will be a HUGE step for India. It will improve the lives of every single woman in the country. Let us hope that the Indian Government will consider taking such an initiative. Because every woman deserves to have #PeriodDignity.
