Women’s health as a test of right to equality

Imagine a sixth-grade classroom in an Indian middle school that begins the year with 50 bright-eyed girls eager to dive into civics, algebra, and the human body.

- Jwalika Balaji

By the end of the year, some of them would have dropped out. Nothing to do with the syllabus, but everything to do with the human body. One in five girls drops out of school due to the lack of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) facilities. Schools neither talk the menstrual talk nor walk the provision of menstrual products. This was raised before the Supreme Court in the recent Dr. Jaya Thakur v. Government of India.

In its ruling, the Court saw MHM as a matter of equality. It delivered a landmark judgment, holding that the nonavailability of menstrual absorbents, gender-segregated toilets, and sensitisation at school violated school girls’ rights of health and dignity under Article 21, but more importantly, amounted to gender-based discrimination under Article 14.