The Supreme Court’s ruling last week that the right to menstrual hygiene and health is an integral part of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution is not only a critical step forward for millions of women in India but will also go a long way in ensuring the health and well-being of the society. A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan issued a series of binding directions to states and Union Territories and schools, both in the public and private sector, to provide free biodegradable sanitary napkins, separate toilets, clean water, safe disposal facilities, and set up menstrual hygiene corners. These, the apex court said, were necessary to ensure the dignity, health, and equality for girls and women, and it added that financial constraints cannot be used as an excuse for non compliance.
In the long and hard battle to ensure menstrual health and hygiene, this carries enormous significance. It has the potential to improve the trajectory of life for more than 116 million girls and young women in India—in the 10–19 age group—who form at least a third of all menstruating women, estimated at over 355 million at the last count. The lack of facilities often meant a break or cessation of their education, pressure for early marriage, and early motherhood, especially in rural areas. India has had a national policy, ‘Menstrual Hygiene Policy for School-going Girls’, which covers these and more aspects, but its implementation has been tardy or non-existent. The SC ruling places the responsibility fair and square on governments and school or college authorities.
Another equally significant aspect has been addressed too. In making the clear pronouncement, the apex court has pointed to the stigma or taboo that continues to persist in many regions and among several communities across India about menstruation, which leads to restrictions placed on menstruating girls and women, including practices such as banishing them to dingy and dangerous outhouses for ‘those’ days every month. Such stigmas and taboos run deep and are unlikely to be erased only because the SC has read menstrual health as part of our fundamental rights. This calls for long-term and sustained work on the ground.
To a great extent, this work has been done by NGOs, civil society organisations, and ASHA workers. The court’s words that “the absence of safe and hygienic menstrual management measures undermines dignified existence” will strengthen and reinforce their efforts. State governments, school and college authorities, and public health officials, now accountable, would do well to remember that a landmark resolution on menstrual hygiene management, gender equality, and human rights was adopted in July 2024 at the UN Human Rights Council, which called for, among other things, universal access to affordable, safe, and clean menstrual hygiene products and facilities. The SC ruling aligns with this, not a day too soon.
