Out research by Plan International shows that 1 in 10 girls and women in the Netherlands have no money for menstrual products. In several countries such as Scotland and New Zealand, menstrual products are already provided free to minimum wage earners. Women with the lowest incomes can take advantage of it (income up to 120 percent of the social minimum).
Periods are not a choice
Now even the majority of the House of Representatives wants it. Today it seems that a parliamentary majority supports the proposal of D66 MP Hülya Kat and Marieke Koekkoek (Volt). Namely: SP, CDA, CU, PvdA, GroenLinks D66 and PvdD. The goal is to distribute the products through food banks or through the red cross. This is already happening in many municipalities.
The measure will probably cost around 2 million euros. D66’er Kat: “Menstruation is not a choice. It is something very normal. It cannot be that girls do not go to school because of it and miss a test or an exam. With free menstrual products we make sure that they can still participate. “
College of Human Rights
In the Netherlands, the Dutch Institute for Human Rights already supported the free supply of these products in 2020. According to the council, this should remove barriers for poor women.
In 2021, the PvdA also tried to make menstrual products freely available. But then there was no parliamentary majority for this. The cabinet considered that a task for the municipalities.
Common
And municipalities such as Rotterdam, Amstelveen, Gouda and Utrecht have already done this in recent years, for example supplying menstrual products to this specific target group in various ways. The Poverty Fund and private individuals did the same.
Costs of menstruation
Estimates of the cost of menstruation vary: from 50 euros per year to 6000 euros For all life. And then there are the cost of painkillers and any lost earnings from sickness claims. According to a study by OnePoll, a woman spends nearly $6,000 in her lifetime to menstrual products.
