Ending ‘period poverty’ after years of advocacy; will the Government take action?

In recent times, I have noticed an encouraging new development in the gender relations sphere. More men are taking an interest in the ‘period poverty’ (PP) phenomenon, especially, how it should be addressed.

Best of all, talking about menstruation is becoming a matter for public discussion; it’s no longer the strictly taboo subject it used to be. And rightly so, because menstruation is central to the existence of the human race as it guarantees births.

‘Period poverty’ is the situation where girls and women from a deprived background are too poor to afford hygienic sanitary products, the sanitary pads or sanitary towels/napkins needed to protect themselves during their menstruation.

Unfortunately, there’s a critical component missing from the PP discussion: we’re not hearing from the Government, or from Parliament, the people’s representatives. Yet, evidently, they are the ones who can act to solve the PP problem.

Interestingly, PP is still in the news weeks after this year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day (MHD). The Day is observed globally on May 28 “to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene management.” It was initiated in 2013 by the German-based non-governmental organisation WASH United, and it started in 2014. The 2023 theme for the observance was ‘Harnessing efforts, making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030’.

Incidentally, it is celebrated on the 28th day of the fifth month of the year because menstrual cycles average 28 days in duration and menstruation lasts an average of five days each month.

By some accounts, Ghana has taxes of over 20 percent on sanitary products. Campaigners have been agitating for years for the taxes to be abolished to make the products affordable – an objective some of us have long identified with. Also known as ‘tampon tax’ or ‘period tax’, the duties have raised the prices of even the previously low-end products too high for vast numbers of girls and women.

For example, as confirmed by a report in The Mirror weekly of June 3, 2023, “some of the low branded pads, which sold between GHȼ 3 and GHȼ 6, (are) now being sold between GHȼ18 and GHȼ25.”

Some women may need two of the 12-pad packs every month. In some quarters it may be hard to believe that there are parents who can’t afford to buy pads for their daughters/wards, but that is the sad reality for many families.

There are plenty of research findings that prove that lack of proper period products is the reason why many girls from a deprived background stay out of school during their menses, meaning that they miss the lessons taught during those days.

Surely, it should be a matter of great concern to the Ministry of Education, if nobody else, that every month the lack of sanitary pads keeps countless numbers of girls out of school for days.

Activism towards ending PP has gone on for years, but so far there has been no indication that successive governments have heard this plea for and from Ghanaian women. This is why I see the need for Parliamentary intervention, possibly by way of a Private Member’s Bill seeking the removal of the taxes as well as the provision of free sanitary products to schoolgirls and others in need.

Those who can’t afford factory-produced, hygienic products resort to all sorts of unsafe alternatives, including rags, toilet rolls and even newspapers.

Similarly, there are huge numbers of women worldwide who every month brave the peculiar anxiety of not having money to manage their menses hygienically and conveniently.

Clearly, the second part of ending period poverty is providing proper toilets in schools for the girls to use as changing rooms during their menses. In any case, why would any local authority approve the construction of a school without toilets?

Furthermore, I see no reason why male MPs can’t join this nationalistic, humanitarian campaign. After all, they have sisters, wives, daughters, nieces and female friends. And presumably, they also have at heart the welfare of their women constituents.

One can understand the reluctance of the Government to add yet another expense to the national budget, especially given Ghana’s current dire economic situation. However, in my view, providing free sanitary products too belongs in the category of critical social interventions such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), which assists the extremely poor and vulnerable; Free Senior High School Policy and the School Feeding Programme.

The initial beneficiaries of free sanitary products could be school girls, and then later the programme could be expanded to include other needy women.

As stated, not only are men taking an interest in menstruation issues, some of them are even joining in the advocacy. The Daily Graphic of June 7, 2023, has a report about an MHD activity held in Accra, dubbed a ‘Period Summit’. At the function, Mohammed Awal Alhassan, Executive Director of the Tamale-based Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre, (Norsaac), added his voice to the calls for the Government to remove the tax on sanitary products.

He “further called on the Government to make the commitment through a deliberate policy to distribute free sanitary pads to all young girls, not just school-going children.”

Intriguingly, there is now even a board game about menstrual hygiene! As reported in The Spectator weekly on June 10, Michael Baabu, founder of Safe Child Ghana, an NGO based in Tema, who developed the ‘Menstrual Hygiene Game’, launched it recently at the Ashamoah M A Basic School, Ga South Municipality. Mr. Baabu said he aimed to sensitise both girls and boys about menstruation issues through the game.

Notably, of the twenty countries listed as providing free sanitary products, four are in Africa: Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia. Additionally, Kenya and South Africa have reportedly also eliminated the ‘tampon tax’.

So Ghana surely has African examples to follow.

If these African countries can do it, why not Ghana? Indeed, why can’t Ghana be the pioneer in West Africa to initiate this critical, very humanitarian intervention?

However, I think the biggest credit must go to Scotland which, reportedly, in November 2020 “became the first country to provide tampons and sanitary pads to anyone who needs them” (emphasis added). Member of the Scottish Parliament, Labour, Monica Lennon reportedly led the effort through the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill. …The measure came after the country became the first to start providing period products in schools in 2017.

I find the wording “to anyone who needs them” especially inspiring.

Is any Honourable in the Ghana Parliament ready to take a cue from Ms. Lennon? And to my mind, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a woman MP who starts a parliamentary movement to end PP in Ghana.

And, conceivably, the Education Ministry, too, has a role in this!

It goes without saying that menstruation is not by choice; it’s an essential factor in the survival of the human race. Therefore, society needs to be supportive of the well-being of women in this matter. Period Poverty needs to end!