Free pads for all female students in New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern’s government has allocated 25 million New Zealand dollars to distribute sanitary pads and other menstrual hygiene products free of charge in all schools from June 2021.
The goal is to combat menstrual poverty. Prime Minister Ardern cited a statistic that one in twelve students is forced to miss school days because he doesn’t have the funds to buy sanitary pads and medicines for menstrual pain. Numbers on the rise during the Covid period.
The program aims to improve the lives of female students and avoid their possibility of school attendance being affected. “Young girls should not lose their education because of something that constitutes the normality of life for half the population ».
So far the only country in the world to make tampons and sanitary pads free for the menstrual cycle has been Scotland. From November 2020 the Period Products Bill, the first regulatory provision in the world that guarantees the free and universal supply to women of sanitary pads and all basic products needed during menstruation, is law in Scotland.
The pads will have to be made available both by local authorities and by heads of schools and educational institutions around the various counties of the northernmost territory of the United Kingdom thanks to sources for 9.2 million pounds a year. There Scotland he had already taken steps to make them free for female students.
In the rest of the UK, where 10% of girls aged 14-21 cannot afford sanitary pads, currently the tampon tax is 5%, in any case lower than the Italian one, which taxes at 22%, such as luxury goods, sanitary towels. Only those compostable and biodegradable, the most expensive and difficult to find, have 5% VAT after a long battle between associations and parliamentarians.
There has been a European directive since 2006 that allows member countries to reduce VAT on these goods. However, not everyone has adopted it. France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal have taxes between 5 and 7%, while Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, and Spain go towards 10%. There Germany lowered taxation last year. Costs are higher than Italy in Sweden and Denmark. Canada eliminated the tax on sanitary pads and also on menstrual cups since 2015. In Australia they are taxed as basic necessities.
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