School Committee Krefeld
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Call for free menstrual items in schools
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15 euros a month for tampons and pads is too much, say politicians.
Photo: dpa/Sebastian Kahnert
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Krefeld In the future, schoolgirls will receive free tampons and pads. This is what the SPD and the Greens are demanding in an application for the school committee. Other cities have already implemented this.
Throughout their lives, women spend thousands of dollars on menstrual items like tampons and pads. There should now be financial relief, at least for schoolgirls. In an application for the school committee meeting on January 18, the SPD and the Greens are calling for menstrual articles to be offered free of charge in secondary schools – for practical, social and hygiene-educational reasons. “Not all” girls could afford enough hygiene items, and some girls reacted with shame when faced with a problem. There are similar demands in Moers, Mönchengladbach, Kempen and Voerde; Düsseldorf has decided that the universities in Passau and Regensburg will also report that they are providing their students with menstrual articles free of charge.
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A woman usually gets her period between the ages of 11 and 14, according to the application, which means that girls and women face a challenge around 450 times in their lives. “Every girl and every woman often faces this challenge in the middle of everyday life situations, but sometimes also before particularly exciting moments such as exams, oral exams or presentations. Situations in which girls and women are severely restricted and react with shame.” On average, a person spends around 20,000 euros on menstruation in their lifetime. However, not everyone could afford that: “Some people cannot even buy the basics, such as tampons or pads. You have to improvise with toilet paper or scraps of fabric.” The form of “period poverty” is a global problem.
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The monthly costs are estimated at around 15 euros, which does not include painkillers and other necessary expenses. This is a particular challenge for many households.
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But it’s not just students who are affected. “Even other women who have little money or homeless women often cannot afford these items,” says Susanne Kujawski, employee of the pro familia advice center in Krefeld and gynaecologist. An alternative to disposable products like tampons and pads are menstrual cups and washable panty liners, says Kujawski. But even if you save in the long run, the acquisition costs often exceed the budget. “There is a manufacturer of menstrual cups who advertises that they donate one menstrual cup to Kenya for every item they buy. It would also be something that women in this country could use,” says Kujawski. In Krefeld it is already possible for women to apply for the costs of contraceptives to be covered. To do this, they must disclose their income and thus make it clear that they need a subsidy for contraceptives. A similar approach would also be conceivable for menstrual articles, but is currently not being discussed. “It would be very welcome,” says Kujawski, as would a permanent reduction in VAT for menstrual items, which is a topic of conversation throughout Germany. “We at pro familia go to schools for sex education lessons and distribute samples there. But that’s just not enough,” says the gynaecologist.
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Although the exact figures and studies on the subject are completely lacking in Germany, a look at Great Britain shows how acutely this problem threatens the reality of life for girls and women. “One in ten school-age girls there cannot afford pads and tampons,” the application reads. In Scotland, since the end of 2020, legislation has stipulated that menstrual articles are made available free of charge in public institutions (especially schools and universities). New Zealand and most recently France are now also making menstrual articles available in public places.
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