MANY MORE STEPS NEEDED TO ENSURE MENSTRUAL RIGHTS

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” — Robert Frost

- THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN

WHEN the Supreme Court declared menstrual health a fundamental right and directed free sanitary provisions in schools, it did something more than correcting a long injustice.

It issued us a moral summons. For too long, menstruation has been treated as a private embarrassment, a matter of cleanliness or charity rather than a constitutional question of dignity, bodily autonomy and equal opportunity under Article 21 of the Constitution. That legal recognition is historic. Now the real test shall truly begin— turning a judgement into changed lives.

Across India, menstruation touches the lives of hundreds of millions. As I had set out in my Private Member’s Bill to amend the National Menstrual Hygiene Policy, a submission grounded in public-health evidence and lived experience, India is home to over 393 million menstruators, and the policy framework must respond to that scale with rights. The Bill insisted on what the court’s ruling implies: menstrual health is structural, systemic and intersectional.

What does that mean in practice? Firstly, the supply is inadequate. Free sanitary pads in schools are essential and welcome, but access must be expanded to reusable, low-waste options and to supply chains that make them affordable and dignified. My Bill called explicitly for support to enterprises producing sustainable menstrual products and for incentives to scale up these markets so that choices are available to all communities, urban and rural alike.