My school lacks menstrual hygiene policy despite glaring period poverty
Sanitary pads. Many schools lack a menstrual hygiene policy, despite period poverty among their girls.
What you need to know:
- The right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare, is guaranteed for all Kenyans.
- The law further promotes the right to healthcare for specific groups as seen in Article 53 for children’s rights, and Article 54 for persons living with disabilities.
Dear Vivian,
I was recently employed as a teacher at a local primary school. I am concerned that the school does not advocate menstrual hygiene and, often, I have to contribute for the needy girls to purchase sanitary towels. I have approached the head teacher frequently for this provision but I am told the school’s focus is on other educational needs. What should I do?
Patricia Ojiambo, Busia
Dear Patricia,
Menstrual hygiene, despite its importance to the health and well-being of women and girls, is often faced with a lot of stigma. Notably, sanitation and hygiene occupy one of the most important spaces in the Constitution, the overarching policy framework, the Kenya Vision 2030 and the collective global sustainable development agenda.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare, is guaranteed for all Kenyans. The law further promotes the right to healthcare for specific groups as seen in Article 53 for children’s rights, and Article 54 for persons living with disabilities.
Additionally, the Constitution has committed itself to promoting and assuring respect for “human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalised” as a national value and principle of governance.
Importantly in your scenario, the Basic Education (Amendment) Act, 2017, addresses the importance of access to menstrual products for girls in learning institutions, and the safe disposal thereof. This law provides that the government shall “provide free sufficient and quality sanitary towels to every girl registered and enrolled in a public basic education institution who has reached puberty, and provide a safe and environmentally sound mechanism for disposal of the sanitary towels”.
The Kenya Menstrual Hygiene Management Policy (2019-30) marks a milestone in the country’s movement towards universal access to improved sanitation and hygiene and a clean and healthy environment in the wake of the 2010 Constitution, and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on September 25, 2015.
Based on the above legal and policy analysis, I recommend that you communicate the importance and legal requirement of menstrual hygiene to the head teacher.
Further, I emphasise the importance of the Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools: A Handbook for Teachers developed by the ministries of Health and Education in 2020. This handbook reinforces learning and acts as a reference guide for teachers. It remedies the challenges that schoolgirls face when menstruating and works towards providing factual information to break the myths, taboos, beliefs and misconceptions on menstruation.
Vivian
The writer is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and an award-winning civil society lawyer ([email protected]).
