OPINION
Earlier this month, NSW followed in the steps of Victoria and South Australia to launch a trial of in public schools.
Many credited Young Australian of the Year , for putting the issue of period poverty on the government agenda. The 22-year-old had made it her mission to provide sanitary products to girls living in poor conditions overseas, as well as partnering with local Australian organisations to provide free access to pads and tampons for girls living in crisis centres and remote Indigenous communities.
However, state governments themselves had begun to realise how the lack of access to sanitary products could impact the mental wellbeing of girls as well as their schooling.
“We want to ensure that no girl or young woman in South Australia is missing school because they don’t have access to sanitary products,” South Australian Education Minister John Gardner said in February last year when the scheme was launched.
Daniel Andrews too said at the launch of the : "This is about dignity, it's about inclusivity."
It seems we've come a long way since 2019, when after an 18-year battle, the was removed, which meant that sanitary products were finally recognised as an essential product.
Much of this is because the statistics speak for themselves. A of over 4,000 teenagers highlighted how more than one-third of them missed at least one class in the past three months due to their menstrual symptoms. And over 60 per cent would find it hard to speak to a teacher about their periods.
The issue is worse for girls living in remote Indigenous communities. A how women and girls were sometimes using toilet paper, socks and rags instead of sanitary products, because of how expensive they were to buy, with a packet costing around $10. A representative from some of the organisations interviewed for the report said: "they don’t want to change [pads] at school.. often there’s no soap, ... there are often no rubbish bins or there’s one rubbish bin outside the toilet, which is really embarrassing to use."
Recognising that the issue isn't one that just affects girls in schools, but most women, in November last year, Scotland became the first country in the world to make all for any woman who needs them.
The announcement came two years after Scotland began providing free sanitary products to students at schools, colleges and universities. A year later, England and Wales followed suit with free sanitary products being made available in schools.
In New Zealand as well, free sanitary products will be from June this year. “One in 12 of our students possibly miss school because they don’t have access to period products. That’s just not right and not in a country like New Zealand.” The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said when announcing the initiative.
It seems that governments around the world are finally waking up to the reality of period poverty but we still have a long way to go.
Currently, 3.2 million Australians and more than half of those people are women and young girls. It's why services provided by charities like Share the Dignity are still so needed. "If we don't collect 200,000 packets of pads and tampons [each drive], which is really only enough for 50,000 women for four months, we're not going to be able to end period poverty in Australia," Rochelle Courtenay, the founder of Share the Dignity told the ABC.
While the introduction of free sanitary products in public schools in some states is a good starting measure, the issue of period poverty doesn't end once a girl finishes school. For many girls and women, periods are a constant part of life, and it's something we have to live with every month for decades.
Being able to afford sanitary products isn't a luxury, as the Australian tax system deemed it to be until recently, it's a basic necessity. Hopefully it won't take long for our government to follow in Scotland's footsteps and make sanitary products freely available to any woman who needs them.
Saman Shad is a freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter at @muminprogress
