Mexico seeks to distribute free pads and tampons in public schools

A woman menstruates 2,535 days of her life, approximately. The equivalent of seven years in a row. More than 43 million women, girls and adolescents - between 15 and 50 years old - have their period in Mexico, according to official data, and four out of every 10 live in a situation of multidimensional poverty. For them, having the period every month represents an obstacle that increases inequalities with their male peers. In the case of the youngest, this inequality translates into school absenteeism due to the inability to obtain towels, tampons and other items. The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies has approved this Thursday the opinion of the Dignified Menstruation Law, which proposes the free provision of feminine hygiene products in more than 198.000 public schools in the country and opens the public debate on a taboo subject that is still not easy to talk about in Mexico. The initiative needs to be approved in the Senate for it to come into effect.

The Menstruation Digna group, which includes various feminist and civil society organizations, proposed last September to eliminate 16% VAT on menstrual management products, but in that case, the Chamber decided to back it down. Its new blow has been the free distribution in schools as the State of Michoacán, Scotland or New Zealand already does. The organizations plan to first attend schools in indigenous communities and areas of high vulnerability, but the idea is that it be extended to all public educational centers in the country.

The challenges of the proposal are not few or simple. The parliamentarians who have promoted the law cite a study carried out by Unicef ​​where the obstacles to access a dignified menstruation intersect with other deficiencies. Only 62% of schools in Mexico have water every day of the week, 19% lack sufficient toilets for students and 58% do not have drinking water. In addition to this, only 40% of school bathrooms have adequate cleaning and safety conditions.

The initiative states that a woman spends about 26,000 pesos (1,200 dollars) a year on sanitary pads or 30,000 pesos (1,400 dollars) on tampons. "The monthly expenditure on towels is 250 to 300 pesos per month, which represents between 6 and 8% of the income of families with fewer resources," explains the spokeswoman for Menstruación Digna, Anahí Rodríguez. The Center for Public Finance of the Lower House estimates that in total the dissemination campaign and implementation per year will cost about 2,500 million pesos (124 million dollars) a year for public schools. "[This law] is an obligation for all states and the next step is to work on its gradual implementation," says the deputy of the Citizen Movement Martha Tagle, one of the promoters of the project.

A stumbling block that the Menstruation Digna movement has encountered is that there is no clear and concise data related to menstruation in the country, so they have taken on the task of collecting and generating them, although there is still a lot of work ahead. This is the third track of the initiative: document and gather information about the period and the impact it has on the lives of women. "We have to change the perception of menstruation because it is a normal physiological process and we do not know what it means for women," says Martha Tagle.

According to a recent study by the Citizen Action Against Poverty organization, in Mexico there is a 16% wage gap between men and women in paid jobs. To this must be added gender inequality and the sexist divisions of unpaid care and domestic work. "It is incredible that due to a physiological process, women and other menstruating people pay a tax of 16%, more so when we are the ones who earn the least in society and the ones who work more informally," says Anahí Rodríguez. The debate takes place when some states enact laws for the elimination of disposable plastic such as the one approved by Mexico City and took tampons ahead, reducing the alternatives of those affected. Michoacán stopped a similar regulation and to give priority to the initiative in schools.

The organization's next proposal is that the free products also reach women in prison or on the streets.

The struggle to dignify menstruation in Mexico continues.

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