Combat period poverty here and abroad
Period products are out of reach for many around the globe. In Indigenous communities across Canada, girls, women and people who menstruate have used socks to manage their periods. In India, the vast majority use old cloth, husk, ash, and mud. In South Sudan, many make use of goatskin, old cloth and sometimes nothing at all.
Period poverty entrenches injustice. It determines who goes to school. Who must choose between food and period products. Who can hold on to their dignity after a climate catastrophe.
Canada must be a leader and transform period poverty into period power, ensuring affordable, eco-friendly access to menstrual products for those who need them.
The challenge is urgent; new research from Plan International Canada shows that period poverty persists among youth in Canada. It suggests that more than one-fifth of respondents have struggled to afford menstrual products. Consequently, 22 per cent of menstruators — and 48 per cent of Indigenous menstruators — have had to ration or use products longer than they should because they simply could not afford more.
Further, most agreed that reusable menstrual products should be offered to low-income individuals and support the availability of free products in schools, shelters, penitentiaries and detention centres, and in Indigenous communities.
For that reason, we welcomed recent steps to address period poverty in Canada’s 2022 federal budget. The budget proposed $25 million over two years to establish a national pilot project for a menstrual equity fund, making these products available to Canadians who cannot afford them. To make good on this fund, the federal government must consult and collaborate with those most affected by period poverty to ensure that it reaches those for who the need is greatest, including menstruators who are Indigenous, of colour, LGBTQ2S+, immigrant, living with a disability, or incarcerated.
Beyond our borders, Canada must also champion a menstrual equity strategy that keeps youth in school as part of our country’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. In Uganda and Indonesia, for example, research has found that about half of menstruators miss up to 24 days of school a year. Denied an education, youth — and girls in particular — are robbed of their promise and a shot at better health, income and quality of life, and greater equity for themselves and their communities. Further, these products should be green and reusable, helping to protect future generations against the impacts of a changing climate. There is not only growing evidence that the climate crisis is impacting the reproductive health of menstruators, but the plastics of menstrual products — like wrappers and applicators — are in turn also impacting the environment.
We can all be activists. As young global citizens, we demand radical action from our government to provide equitable access to green menstrual products. The promise, potential and dignity of youth here in Canada and around the world depends on it. ANJANA SOMASUNDARAM (SHED RED), BHANVI SACHDEVA (ARTICULATE INITIATIVE) AND ZIYAAN VIRJI (FOR THE MENSTRUATOR) ARE MENSTRUAL EQUITY ACTIVISTS AND YOUTH ADVOCATES WITH PLAN INTERNATIONAL CANADA.