Scotland has become the first country to allow free and universal access to menstrual products to its citizens.
According to the new enforcement, the local authorities and education providers of public spaces and education sites will be responsible for making sure that the products mentioned are readily available, free of charge.
“The campaign has been backed by a wide coalition, including trades unions, women’s organizations, and charities,” Monica Lennon, the lawmaker who introduced the bill last year, said ahead of the vote.
“Scotland will not be the last country to make period poverty history.”
The cost around the bill is estimated to be around £8.7 million a year by 2022, depending on the women that will be using this advantage to their full capacity.
The estimation is based on women of the 20% relative poverty.
“Proud to vote for this groundbreaking legislation, making Scotland the first country in the world to provide free period products for all who need them. An important policy for women and girls,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on her official Twitter page after the vote.
Periods have been a controversial and embarrassing issue to girls for a long time now, despite the fact that it is a natural process and is experienced by women all around the world.
England and New Zealand have also gone on the path of making sanitary products available without charge in schools.
Source: CNN News