Scotland is set to become the first nation to provide women and girls with free pads and tampons.
The move is a big win for the global movement to stop the over-pricing of period products, including “tampon taxes” that classify sanitary pads as luxury items.
The Scottish Parliament approved a plan Tuesday (25.02.2020) to make menstrual products available free in public spaces such as community centres, pharmacies and youth clubs, the Washington Post reported.
The new plan will cost Edinburgh an estimated $31.2 million a year.
Internationally, lawmakers and activists have expressed anger at policies that force women to pay comparatively high taxes for necessities that do not always go acknowledged as such.
Scotland has offered pads and tampons free of charge at schools and universities as a matter of national policy since 2018. In Scotland, a study found that 1 in 4 women at schools and universities had trouble accessing menstrual products before they became free for students.
Here in Kenya, the levels of period poverty are at an all-time high with thousands of girls missing at least a week of school when they are on their period. The legislation in Scotland has been received with joy by celebrities such as Janet Mbugua as it is a step forward to ending period poverty globally.
