By Isaac Gomes

Kolkata, April 12, 2023: The Supreme Court of India has asked the federal government to formulate a national model for all states and Union Territories for managing menstrual hygiene for girls in schools.

The apex court on April 10 also termed the issue as of “immense importance” and urged the government to prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala appointed secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the nodal officer to coordinate with the states and UTs and collect relevant data for formulating a national policy.

“At the present stage, we are of the considered view that Centre should engage with all the stakeholders for implementation of the Uniform National Policy with a leeway for the states and UTs to modify the scheme as per their local needs”, the Bench said.

It directed all the states and UTs to submit their menstrual hygiene management strategies and plans which are being executed either with the help of federal government funds or their own, to the Mission Steering Group of the National Health Mission.

The bench said, “All states and UTs are directed to notify the appropriate ratio of girls’ toilets for residential and non-residential schools in their respective territories.” It further directed all the states and UTs to make provision for ensuring availability of quality low-cost sanitary pads and vending machines in schools.

“All states and UTs are further directed to ensure that disposal mechanisms are available for schools/school complexes having girls’ enrolment in upper-primary/ secondary/higher secondary classes for safe disposal of sanitary pads”, it said.

The bench directed the federal government to file an updated status report by July end.

Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the federal government, said though there are several guidelines and schemes of different ministries dedicated to improve access to menstrual hygiene for young and adolescent girls, the responsibility of providing these services lies with the respective state governments as public health is a state subject.

In an affidavit filed before the top court, the union health ministry said: “It is submitted that public health is a state subject and the responsibility of providing healthcare services is that of respective state governments. The Central government and its agencies are not the implementing bodies for schemes relating to menstrual health; and it is in fact the states and their agencies which are at the forefront of enforcement of the policies,” the ministry said.

The above stipulations of the Supreme Court on menstrual hygiene management equally apply to church-run schools which reportedly have 25% share of all educational institutions in India. Therefore, girl students in these schools must be quite high. As most schools nowadays are co-educational, the authorities of church-run schools need to be very sensitive to the related needs of girl students i.e. separate girls’ toilets with all facilities, namely soap, running water, sanitary pad vending machines and safe disposal of sanitary pads. Special facilities (hand rails, ramps) must be provided for handicapped girl students.

In light of the Apex Court judgement all the churches and church-run school managements must revisit their toilet facilities. My personal experience of these facilities in the various churches in my state Bengal, is nauseous, to say the least. Some parishes have only one or two toilets, unclean (even priests’), malfunctioning light, locked most of the time and the stench clearly proves lack of regular cleaning. Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Finance Committees attach the lowest priority to this aspect of hygiene. It’s time they woke up from their complacence and adopted the latest hygiene practices (bio or smart-toilets, solar toilets).

The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur through lawyer Varinder Kumar Sharma seeking issuance of directions for providing free sanitary pads to girls studying in classes 6 to 12 in government schools across the country.

The ministry stated that menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions for women as well as adolescent girls in India. “Moreover, traditionally, there have been practices of using old clothes as pads by recycling them, use of ash or straw, which not only affect menstrual hygiene but also have long term implications for reproductive health.”

Thakur in her plea said serious difficulties are faced by adolescent females between the ages of 11 and 18 years who come from poor backgrounds. “These are adolescent females who are not equipped with and are also not educated by their parents about menstruation and menstrual hygiene. The deprived economic status and illiteracy leads to prevalence of unhygienic and unhealthy practices which has serious health consequences, increase obstinacy and leads to eventual dropping out from schools,” the plea said.

A total of 19.4 percent of India’s urban and rural households reportedly do not use any toilet facility, a National Family Health Survey report released on May 10, 2022, said.

The report revealed that open defecation is practised in 6.1 percent of urban households while the percentage shoots up to 25.9 percent for rural households. Among states and union territories, access to a toilet facility is lowest in Bihar (available only in 61.2 percent of households), followed by Jharkhand (69.6 percent) and Odisha (71.3 percent.)
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