Supreme Court Declares Menstrual Hygiene a Fundamental Right: Landmark Ruling for Schools
In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court of India has recognized access to menstrual hygiene as a fundamental constitutional right, issuing sweeping directives to transform school infrastructure and support systems for girl students across the nation.
Substantive Equality: The Core Legal Principle
The court's judgment, delivered by a bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, is firmly anchored in the concept of substantive equality. While Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before the law, the court emphasized that treating everyone identically can perpetuate existing inequalities. The bench noted that equal consideration for all may demand very unequal treatment in favour of the disadvantaged.
In the context of education, the court observed that if a girl child cannot attend classes due to lack of menstrual absorbents or proper toilet facilities, she is inherently disadvantaged compared to her male peers. The absence of menstrual hygiene measures entrenches gendered disadvantage by converting a biological reality into a structural exclusion, the judgment stated.
Constitutional Foundations: Dignity, Privacy, and Education
The court placed menstrual health squarely within the ambit of Article 21, which guarantees the right to life and personal liberty. It held that the right to life includes the right to live with dignity. For menstruating girl children, inaccessibility to Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) measures subjects them to stigma, stereotyping, and humiliation, violating their bodily autonomy and privacy.
Furthermore, the court provided a progressive interpretation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act). It ruled that the term free education in Section 3 extends beyond tuition fee waivers to include the removal of any financial barrier hindering education. When expenditure on sanitary products leads to absenteeism or drop-outs, the State's inaction converts a guaranteed right into a conditional one, the judgment noted.
Comprehensive Directives for Schools
The Supreme Court issued a continuing mandamus, a judicial order to monitor compliance, with specific, time-bound directions to be implemented within three months:
- Free Sanitary Napkins: All schools, government and private, must provide free oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins to girl students, preferably through vending machines in toilets or designated authorities.
- Disposal Mechanisms: Schools must establish safe, hygienic, and environmentally compliant disposal systems for sanitary napkins, including covered waste bins with regular cleaning.
- Functional Toilets: All schools in urban and rural areas must have functional, gender-segregated toilets with usable water connectivity, designed for privacy and accessibility for children with disabilities, equipped with hand-washing facilities, soap, and water.
- Menstrual Hygiene Management Corners: Schools must set up MHM corners with essentials like spare innerwear, uniforms, and disposable bags to handle menstruation-related emergencies, preventing girls from leaving school due to staining or leakage.
Destigmatization and Sensitization
The judgment strongly emphasized the need to destigmatize menstruation, noting that an unsupportive, rather hostile and stigmatized environment renders infrastructure ineffective. The court directed:
- The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and State Councils (SCERTs) to incorporate gender-responsive curricula on puberty and menstruation.
- Mandatory training for all teachers, male and female, to support menstruating students.
- District Education Officers (DEOs) to conduct annual inspections and gather anonymous student feedback via tailored surveys to assess facility realities.
Concluding the judgment, the bench delivered a powerful message: We wish to communicate to every girl child, who might have become a victim of absenteeism because her body was perceived as a burden, that the fault is not hers. This ruling marks a transformative step toward ensuring menstrual equity and educational equality in India.
