Supreme Court: The Supreme Court will hear that petition on Monday, 24 July. In which a demand has been made to provide free sanitary pads to girls from class 6 to 12th. In this petition, an appeal has been made to direct the Central and State Governments to provide free sanitary pads to the girl students of classes VI to XII of government-aided and residential schools. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra’s bench will hear the petition of social activist Jaya Thakur.
In fact, the top court had earlier asked the central government to prepare a standard operating procedure and a national model for menstrual hygiene for girls studying in schools to be adopted by all states and union territories.
On April 10, the apex court had said that the issue ‘extremely important’ and the Center should hold talks with all stakeholders for the implementation of a uniform national policy on management of menstrual hygiene in schools, including government and aided schools. For this, the Supreme Court has directed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to collect relevant data regarding formulation of a national policy in coordination with all States and Union Territories. (MOHFW) Secretary was appointed as the nodal officer.
The top court had said that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Jal Shakti are already running schemes to deal with issues related to menstrual hygiene.
Petitioner Jaya Thakur in her petition has mentioned the serious difficulties faced by adolescent girls coming from poor background in getting education.
