Right to Menstrual Health is part of Right to Life: SC issues directions on Free Sanitary Pads, Menstrual Hygiene Management corners in schools

The Supreme Court also directed that such Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) corners must be established in every school, and they should be equipped with spare innerwear, spare uniforms, disposable bags, and other necessary materials to address menstruation-related exigencies….

Supreme Court: While considering this writ petition seeking appropriate directions for providing free sanitary pads to every schoolgirl and separate toilets for females in all government aided and residential schools and other consequential reliefs, the Division Bench of J.B. Pardi Wala and R. Mahadevan, JJ, held that the right to education is a ‘multiplier right’ as it enables exercise of other human rights. Right to education forms part of the broader framework of the right to life and human dignity, which cannot be realised without access to education. The Court further concluded that inaccessibility of menstrual hygiene management measures undermines the dignity of a girl child and that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to menstrual health….