Period products, including tampons and sanitary pads, will be available free of charge in public facilities in Scotland from Monday, when the world’s first law came into effect.
By Strategyandbusiness.net
The Period Products Bill was passed unanimously by Scottish lawmakers in November 2020, marking a historic victory for the global movement against so-called “menstrual poverty”.
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The new law means that menstrual products will be available in public buildings, including schools and colleges across Scotland. It is the responsibility of local authorities and education providers to ensure that products are available free of charge.
The law was the brainchild of Scottish Labor lawmaker Monica Lennon, who introduced the bill in April 2019. “Proud of what we’ve achieved in Scotland,” Lennon wrote on Twitter on Monday. “We are the first, but we won’t be the last.”
In a paper supporting the legislation, Lennon said it was reasonable to expect 20% of the menstruating population to use the programme, given that official inequality statistics show nearly 20% of women in Scotland live in relative poverty.
The act is one of a series of programs designed to tackle menstrual poverty in Scotland, whose government has certain powers delegated by the United Kingdom.
In the UK as a whole, one in 10 girls aged 14-21 said they were unable to purchase period products, according to a survey conducted by Plan International UK in 2017. The survey also found that nearly half were embarrassed about their periods, About half of them missed an entire day of school because of them.
Georgie Nicholson, who runs the British organization Hey Girls, which seeks to make these products free across the UK, told the BBC that the organization had conducted a study before the pandemic that indicated one in four women in Scotland was water-poor. at some point.
“There is a very simple way to describe period poverty: You go to the supermarket and you have to choose whether you can buy a bag of pasta or a box of tampons. That is key,” he said.
Nicholson added that Scotland became the first country in the world to offer free products for a period of time – a “really huge” achievement.
in other countries
Globally, only a few countries have zero additional taxes on medical devices, including Canada, India, Australia, Kenya, and several US states.
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Last year, Germany voted to lower the tax rate on feminine hygiene products after deeming them a daily necessity rather than a luxury.
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