Half of the global population has to deal with it, menstruation. Still in many societies this topic is taboo. This creates large inequalities between people who menstruate and those who don’t. Starting your menstruation can be paired with a lot of shame or drop out in school. The access to hygiene products is often very limited, without proper hygiene products women are often ashamed to leave the house.
This is not only a problem in developing countries, but also in the Global North, menstrual poverty is getting more attention. What exactly is menstrual poverty? In short, it means you don't have enough money to buy pads, tampons or other menstrual products. The Dutch feminist movement "De bovengrondse " has an even broader definition, looking at menstrual poverty from three aspects: access to menstrual products, access to sanitation, and knowledge about menstruation.
From this perspective, this is a much bigger problem, sanitation is still insufficient in many parts of the world and in many cultures, menstruation is a big taboo. A project has been set up in Inda to break this taboo, make more sanitary towels available and make women more financially independent. With a simple machine and few raw materials, women have set up their own company here making sanitary towels. Netflix has made a short documentary (Period, end of sentence.) about these women and has even won an Academy award for it. Initiatives like this slowly brakes down the taboo on menstruation.
In Europe and America, too, more and more is being done to combat menstrual poverty. Scotland recently became the first country in the world to make free menstrual products available in all public toilets and schools (The Guardian). This gives millions of people access to these products and this can certainly be the difference between buying lunch or sanitary towels for people living in poverty.
There is also a lot of menstrual poverty in the Netherlands, although it is sometimes difficult to see that. People do not dare to say that they have too little money for menstrual products and do not know where to ask for help.
What do you think we should also have free menstrual products available here in the Netherlands or is there another solution?
A really good blog! I totally agree with making menstrual products available for everybody, because it is really expensive but I think if you make it free for everyone you also need to look at how sustainable it is. So, what Ineke says about the menstrual cup, maybe it is an idea to give those for free because those are a long term sustainable option!
I think this is such an important topic! I do think that Netherlands should make period products free for the people that are in the lowest income-groups. This could be in the form of giving out menstrual cups once every few years. The cup is also a very sustainable, because it is re-usable. I do think that in the Netherlands, there is still a huge period-stigma. It is still something to be hidden and does not get talked about a lot. I do think we have a long way to go. -Ineke
What an well written article! I think that making menstrual products available to everybody is a very good idea. Menstrual products are often very expensive and for people that don't have a lot of budget it can be hard to have to spend money on these products. Free menstrual products can be a good start to help them.