Scotland becomes first country to provide free sanitary products: Pads were made to absorb blood of soldiers, sanitary towels were meant for women – Bharat Times English News

Women in Scotland will be given all period products free of charge. In 2020, the Scottish Parliament made a law in this regard. Here now any woman can easily get free sanitary pads and other period products.

Scotland has become the first country in the world to provide this facility to women. On the other hand, in many parts of the world including our country, periods are still considered taboo.

The big problem of young women is ‘Periods Poverty’

After enacting a law in their own country, Scottish leaders loudly said that they had abolished period poverty from their country. Period Poverty is a condition where a woman is unable to buy sanitary products due to financial constraints. According to one figure, a third of women in Europe faced period poverty during the lockdown. According to a research from George Mason University, 14% of college-going American girls were victims of period poverty.

This was the case of Scotland, where women have got freedom from buying sanitary pads; Now let’s know the condition of our country…

According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21) report, about half of the women in the country do not have access to menstrual products. 49.6% of women in the country use cloth instead of pads during periods. Talking about the states, 69.4% in Uttar Pradesh, 69.1% in Assam, 68.6% in Chhattisgarh and 67.5% in Bihar use cloth during menstruation.

Ongoing Schemes to End Period Poverty in India

In India too, many schemes are being run to provide period products to women for free or at a low rate. But due to lack of awareness and administrative negligence, most of the schemes die in the middle. The Bihar government had launched a scheme to provide free sanitary pads to school girls. But in many schools of Bihar, boys were also given the benefit of this scheme in a fake manner.

Apart from this, sanitary napkins are being made available at the rate of Re 1 per pad under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana’ (PMBJP). The Rajasthan government had also released a budget of Rs 200 crore to provide free sanitary napkins to women and girl child under the ‘UDAN scheme’.

This country is also preparing to give free sanitary pads, tax has been reduced in many places

Last year New Zealand made sanitary products free for schoolgirls. This facility is also given to female students in Kenya and South Korea. In the past few days, many US states have reduced the state tax on sanitary products. Due to which the price of these products has come down a lot.

Pads were made for men, women started using them in periods

Sanitary pads were not originally designed for women. While making this, the periods were also not taken into account. According to a report in ‘My Period Blog’, French nurses used pads to stop the blood of wounded soldiers during the First World War. These pads quickly absorbed the blood of wounded soldiers and were easily replaceable.

During the war, women workers of companies making such pads started using those pads even during their periods. This is how the concept of sanitary pads emerged.

Sanitary products were also used before, in 1896 Johnson made sanitary towels

Let us tell you that even before the First World War, sanitary products were sold in the market. In 1896, the ‘Johnson & Johnson’ company introduced sanitary towels for the first time in the market. It was called the ‘Lister’s Towel’. Apart from this, sanitary belts made of cloth and rubber were also available. But they used to be very expensive. Only a few rich women could use it. At that time, cloth was popular among most women. After the arrival of sanitary pads in the market, a large number of women started using it instead of cloth.

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