Draft National Policy for supply, disposal of sanitary napkins ready, Centre tells SC

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that a draft National Policy on menstrual hygiene for ensuring the supply and safe disposal of sanitary napkins in schools has been already formulated and is available in the public domain.

The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra heard a petition seeking directions to the Centre, the States, and the UTs to ensure menstrual hygene for school-going girls by providing for sanitary napkins to girl children in class 6-12.

The plea also demanded separate toilets for girls in all government, government-aided schools, and residential schools.

The Centre has asked for four weeks time to get public opinions on the policy from the top court.

Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, appearing for the petitioners, raised the issue of delay and told the court that necessary infrastructure funding had already been allocated to schools.

However, the Supreme Court, noting that the Union had already formulated a draft policy, granted Union the four weeks as requested to receive public opinions on the scheme.

"We are informed that a draft policy is ready and it has been circulated to get views of all stakeholders and a final policy shall be ready in four weeks. We direct that the Union shall ensure a national model is in place to set up girls toilets across government-aided schools and residential schools and the modalities are in place for the distribution of sanitary napkins. The court shall be apprised of the policy on the next date of hearing. Union shall consider practices of different states so that optimum supply of sanitary napkins are there for girl students in that age group." the CJI said.

Citing example of northeast states, the CJI directed the Centre to take into consideration practices of different states in order to ensure adequate supply of sanitary napkins and that modalities for distribution are favourable.

The petitioners highlighted that the inadequate Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) options were a major barrier to education that lead to many girls dropping out of school due to lack of access to sanitation facilities and menstrual products.

The petitioners further asked for creating awareness around menstrual health and doing away with the taboo surrounding it. They demanded adequate sanitation facilities and subsidised or free sanitary products for women, especially in disadvantaged areas.