Tampons and pads will be available free of charge in Scotland from Monday. The country is making history with a law enacted to combat menstrual poverty: Scotland is the first nation in the world to legally require local authorities to offer menstrual products free of charge in public places.
below the law All public institutions, such as schools, universities, libraries and town halls, must provide menstrual products free of charge to anyone who needs them. You still have to pay for tampons in supermarkets, but via a app the government has made visible where the products can be picked up for free.
The bill proposed by Labor MP Monica Lennon was already unanimously supported by the Scottish Parliament in 2020. In Scotland, tampons and sanitary pads in schools and universities have also been free for the past four years. So far, nearly €32 million has been spent on menstrual products at public institutions.
Lennon called the law “a major milestone” on Monday. Scottish Social Justice Minister Shona Robison said he was proud to be the first country to introduce such a law. “This is more important than ever at a time when people are making difficult choices because of the cost of living.” According to a survey by Hey Girls, a social organization working to tackle menstrual poverty in the UK, a quarter of women in Scotland have experienced menstrual poverty at some point.
Also read: Free tampons are mainly a sign of failing poverty policy in the UK
Poverty in the Netherlands
Menstrual poverty also occurs in the Netherlands. Published in 2019 research Plan International shows that one in ten Dutch women and girls at the time had no money for tampons or sanitary towels. The cabinet allowed reaction know that it had already taken ‘various measures’ to tackle poverty on a structural basis. According to the then minister Bruno Bruins (Medical Care, VVD), this approach was “enough to combat menstrual poverty and its consequences”.
Also in England, New Zealand, some US and Australian states, Botswana and Kenya, tampons and sanitary pads have been offered free of charge in schools since last year. Those countries have no obligation for other public places to do so.