Monday’s announcement that NHS England will support free period products in hospitals is a step forward for women. NHS England stepped up to the mark after a Freedom of Information request found 46% did not offer an any products at all – they offer bandages, toilet paper, hand wash, bacterial wash and even shavers, so why not sanitary products?
Of course, when on a period you just can’t ‘hold it in’, and the need for such products is an essential item in hospital to help keep your dignity in what are already distressing circumstances. Recognising this as an issue and acting upon it, and in doing so breaking down what is still classed as a taboo subject in what is still a very male-orientated world, is undoubtedly the right direction of travel.
For me and my small team at freedom4girls, it has taken two years for a statutory body to recognise there was an issue. We have been campaigning on the issue after I brought it to the UK’s media attention two years ago, when I found girls were missing school either because they couldn’t afford enough (or sometimes any) products, or just through a lack of education. At the time linked this to the increased poverty: rising use of foodbanks, the introduction of Universal Credit and the cut in in-work benefits and austerity in general – all of which remains very relevant two years later. We are the sixth biggest economy in the world but inequalities are widening each year.
This week’s announcement that the government want to tackle worldwide period poverty by 2030 by investing £2million is another step in the right direction, but a tiny amount compared to the £4million Scotland has just invested to tackle the issue. There’s no mention of education, which has a huge role to play in tackling the stigma and taboo, or offering girls and women alternative environmentally-friendly products such as menstrual cups or washable reusables.
So this gesture, to me, feels like a way of getting others to solve the issue – those who work tirelessly for no money and very little help and support. We grassroots organisations need to be consulted and given more say in how to tackle these issues. We are on the ground, we work with the people it effects.
Three years ago, on a visit to Kenya that inspired me to start freedom4girls and fight against period poverty, I discovered that 60% of women and girls did not have access to safe menstrual protection and instead use dirty rags, ash, dung, bits of mattress, leaves, even corn husks to stem the flow. This very often leads to the girls losing out up to five days of school or work each month. Some girls even dropped out of school altogether because of suffering terrible stigma, while others would put themselves in exploitative situations in order to buy pads as they were so desperate to not miss school.
Here in the UK, our economy is locking people, most of them working, into poverty. Rising living costs and low-paid or unstable jobs are trapping millions in a daily struggle to make ends meet, meaning more families are increasingly unable to put food on the table, let alone buy menstrual products. Free tampons in NHS institutions are welcome, but until we change this, we will not beat period poverty.
Tina Leslie is founder of freedom4girls, a charity campaigning against period poverty