Tampons and sanitary pads will be available free of charge from Monday in Scotland to all women with the entry into force of a law against menstrual poverty, a world first of this magnitude, the local government announced.
According to this text voted in 2020 by the deputies of the British nation, local authorities and schools and universities will be legally obliged to provide periodic protection free of charge.
A mobile phone application, PickMyPeriod, was launched to find the nearest distribution points.
A “fundamental right in terms of equality and dignity”
The Scottish government, led by the separatists, presents its law as a first in the world and claims to have been followed in this way by New Zealand or South Korea. In France, health protection is offered free of charge to female students.
“Providing access to free health protection is essential in terms of equality and dignity,” Social Justice Minister Shona Robison was quoted as saying in a press release.
“It is even more important at a time when people are having to make difficult decisions due to the cost of living crisis,” he added, as inflation nears 10% in the UK.
Free towels in schools since 2018
The Scottish government has already been offering pads and tampons in schools and universities since 2018.
The nation’s period poverty movement was led in particular by a group of high school girls, “Lady Business.” The girls had filled dispensers in the bathrooms of their school in central Scotland with hygiene products, before launching a campaign, speaking at other schools and organizing a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament.
More than half of teenage girls (52%) have missed school because of their periods, according to a May 2019 survey of 1,000 UK teens.
Source: BFM TV
