Leading The Way, New Zealand Makes Sanitary Products Free For All School-Going Girls

In a move to end ¡®period poverty¡¯, New Zealand will offer free sanitary products to school girls. Girls in high schools there will no longer have to pay for these products after the government announced that it would pay for them.

Prime minister, Jacinda Ardern said sanitary supplies for a monthly period were not a luxury, but a necessity and many girls skipped school because they couldn¡¯t afford pads and tampons.

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The Guardian reports that schools in deprived areas were forced to use toilet paper, newspaper and rags in an attempt to manage their period.

Fifteen Waikato schools have been identified as those most in need and will have access to free products from term three of this year. The programme will go nationwide on an opt-in basis by 2021.

¡°We know that nearly 95,000 nine-to-18-year-olds may stay at home during their periods due to not being able to afford period products. By making them freely available, we support these young people to continue learning at school,¡± The Guardian quote Arden as saying.

A local NGO named Dignity that provides some schools with sanitary supplies are reportedly ¡®ecstatic¡¯ about the government¡¯s decision.

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¡°For students, a lack of access to period products not only exacerbates feelings of shame and a gendered financial burden but has shown to increase absenteeism,¡± The Guardian quoted Miranda Hitchings. co-founder of Dignity as saying.

She further said, ¡°It¡¯s a fantastic investment from our government. However, this is just the beginning. Period poverty doesn¡¯t just affect students. It¡¯s a subset of poverty, and many other groups, like those experiencing homelessness and income loss, deeply feel the implications from a lack of access to products.¡±

The Labour coalition government aims to decrease child poverty in the coming decade. However, Ardern said that task had been made more complex by the implications of COVID-19. But she also said that it is important to invest in programmes that would make an ¡°immediate difference¡± to the lives of deprived girls around the country.

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¡°Menstruation is a fact of life for half the population and access to these products is a necessity, not a luxury,¡± Julie Anne Genter, the minister for women said.

Youth19 Survey found that 12% of students aged 9-13 who menstruate reported difficulty accessing sanitary products and approximately one in 12 students skipped school as they couldn¡¯t afford products.

New Zealand is not the first country to have realised the importance of sanitary products for women. Scotland became the first nation to make sanitary items like pads and tampons free for women. The country declassified period products from the class of luxury items.

Such amendments should definitely be brought in India where millions of women belonging to the lower middle class and coming from a poor background cannot afford sanitary products which is a basic necessity.