The Minister of Equality and Feminism of the Generalitat, Tània Verge, has announced this Tuesday that the Catalan Executive will facilitate free access to menstrual products “to all women”, within the framework of the so-called Menstrual and climacteric Equality Plan 2023-2025, recently approved by the Consell Executiu and which, among other objectives, seeks to break stereotypes and stigmas about menstruation and menopause.
The Generalitat will promote a total of 60 measures to guarantee “access for all women to menstrual products”, especially sustainable or reusable ones. To all women and, in the words of the Generalitat itself, “to all non-binary people and menstruating trans men”. One of the star measures will be the installation of free dispensers for organic cotton pads and tampons.
These free machines will be placed in “multiple facilities and public services.” They will be available “for everyone and especially for women in vulnerable situations”, although the Government does not specify how potential users at risk of poverty will be distinguished from those who do not. The dispensers will be distributed, among other places, in colleges and universities.
There will also be dispensers in youth facilities such as hostels and in outpatient clinics and primary care centers, as well as in Generalitat railway stations and Mossos d’Esquadra police stations (a recent order criticized the absence of pads and tampons for those detained in the most of the police stations in Spain, which often left their supply “to the generosity of the civil servants”).
The service network of the Department of Equality and Feminisms will be another of the points that will provide menstrual products for free. The Government admits that it is “a very ambitious action, unprecedented in the international arena and that it will potentially reach 1.8 million women, that is, all those who menstruate in Catalonia.”
These measures pursue three objectives. One, promote gender justice and ensure women’s health. Two, combat “menstrual poverty, which affects one in five Catalans.” And three, to contribute to climate justice, since in Catalonia “9,000 tons of non-reusable menstrual products are produced every year.” The use of the menstrual cup would avoid such a large production of waste.
To facilitate the use of this glass, “the toilets in public facilities and offices, including educational centers, will be adapted and marked, while other premises and private offices open to the public will be encouraged to follow this same path. To encourage the reuse of feminine hygiene products during this course, more than 85,500 third-year ESO students will receive a panty, compress and cup.
They will be schoolchildren from 1,120 centers, in an initiative that will be repeated every campaign starting this year. The Generalitat also plans to introduce discounts on the purchase of “sustainable” menstrual products through the Carnet Jove and the university card. Another novelty will consist of the incorporation of subjects on the period and menopause in the studies of Health Sciences.
