With the Government pledging to actively address period poverty through Budget 2025, there is renewed focus on the implementation of such initiatives. 

Accordingly, Budget 2025 has allocated Rs. 1,440 million to provide sanitary napkins for female students. 

Speaking in Parliament during the debate on expenditure allocation for the Ministry of Education, Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said: “Starting this year, we are committed to ensuring that no Sri Lankan child has to attend a school without proper sanitation facilities. We have also allocated Rs. 11.126 billion through the line ministry and Rs. 14.896 billion through Provincial Councils to address these issues.”

According to information provided to The Sunday Morning by the Office of Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Madhura Sevevirathne through the School Health and Nutrition Branch of the Ministry of Education, all female students above Grade 6 in all Government schools who have attained adulthood have been targeted to benefit from this initiative. 

This amounts to a total of 1.05 million students, to be facilitated for over a period of 12 months, encompassing a total of 6,140 schools. 

The Government expects to spend a total of Rs. 1,512 billion on the initiative, while the amount allocated in the Budget is Rs. 1.44 billion. Accordingly, the deficit stands at Rs. 0.072 billion. 

Students will be given a certificate worth Rs. 1,440 in two parts of Rs. 720 each (Rs. 120 x 12 months = Rs. 1,440) and four certified institutions will visit schools and distribute sanitary napkin packets to students.

While this marks a timely step to support girls’ health and ensure uninterrupted access to education, it remains to be seen whether such initiatives will reach those in need. 

Practical realities 

Typically, despite being an issue that affects over half of the country’s population, period poverty often goes unnoticed in policy discussions, especially given gender-blind policies and tax laws – for example, the ‘pink tax’ on feminine products. 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Arka Initiative Director Dr. Rashmira Balasuriya pointed out that previous attempts at addressing period poverty had failed to take into account the ground level and practical realities of menstruators. 

“The Government itself and even many organisations still think that period poverty can be solved at a grassroots level by simply giving menstruators disposable pads. What they don’t consider is the long-term sustainability of this initiative. While it solves the immediate need for girls and menstruators to access pads, menstruators bleed every single month, so for how long can they keep just giving pads?” she questioned.

Similarly, speaking to The Sunday Morning, educationist Dr. Tara de Mel pointed out that despite the State’s attempts to address widespread period poverty, the situation at the ground level still required urgent intervention. 

“I don’t think there has been any serious attempt at addressing period poverty or sanitation for school girls in the recent past,” she said, addressing overlooked aspects of previous attempts at tackling period poverty. 

There are considerations other than the provision of sanitary napkins when it comes to addressing period poverty. For instance, some concerns to be addressed are the availability of water and sanitation facilities, disposal methods for pads, running water in schools to change pads, or even functioning toilets. 

Additionally, Dr. Balasuriya noted that a programme for distributing pads would need to consider minutiae such as the number of pads, noting that the Government had previously failed to provide adequate amounts of disposable menstrual pads.

“When it comes to disposable pads, they should ideally be changed every four to six hours. However, they have only been able to allocate one packet of pads per menstruator, which is about eight pads in a packet. If a menstruator bleeds on average for about three to five days, they need at least 20 pads from a health perspective to ensure their safety and good menstrual hygiene.”

According to Dr. de Mel, combatting period poverty needs a multi-pronged approach and consistent, well-thought-out efforts.

“Firstly, female students from underserved and disadvantaged areas should have access to adequate sanitary napkins throughout the year. There needs to be an ‘audit’ on what kind of numbers we are dealing with and what schools (and education divisions/zones) need to be prioritised. This would enable the Government to get a realistic idea of the problem at hand and budget for this need accordingly,” she said.

Dr. Balasuriya further noted that while providing menstrual pads to schools was effective, there were concerns regarding the sustainability of the initiative, with funding being a continuous requirement. 

“There has to be funding that comes in continuously, because these school girls bleed every single month. They require menstrual pads every single month. Can the Government continue to fund this programme or is it going to be another Government initiative that just starts and stops after a couple of months due to lack of funds?” she questioned. 

Further, alongside distributing menstrual pads, the programme needs to ensure that young menstruators understand the gravity and importance of menstrual health and hygiene, while also encouraging and teaching them the correct way to use menstrual pads to ensure the programme’s long-term success.  

Impact on education 

Post-pandemic and post-economic crisis, period poverty has become a significant concern, especially in rural and plantation communities in Sri Lanka, with accessibility and affordability of menstrual hygiene products figuring as a prominent issue. This has impacted the education of children as well. 

According to a study, 37% of girls miss at least one or two days of school each month due to their periods, and Dr. Balasuriya attributed this to several reasons, including menstrual pain, the lack of water and sanitation facilities, and lack of menstrual hygiene products, as well as cultural myths and taboos surrounding exerting oneself during periods. 

Dr. de Mel noted that the impact of period poverty on the poorer sections of society needed to be taken into consideration, which required that the Government prioritise such groups, since education deprivation of girl students due to period poverty was inevitable unless such conditions were rectified. 

“Although we aren’t a developed nation like Scotland, some other parts of the UK, and Europe, all of which enable free sanitary napkin distribution in schools, we can learn many lessons from these countries in implementing novel schemes. 

“The Government should study some model nations in this regard and also develop some novel methods together with the private and NGO sectors to address this matter with the urgency it deserves. There are many non-Government initiatives that have studied this issue thoroughly and have ready-made solutions as well,” she noted. 

Dr. de Mel pointed out that a well-designed system, if implemented correctly, would address the burden that female students faced at present, particularly those from impoverished areas who often skipped school during their monthly period, since they were unable to afford sanitary napkins. 

“Students aren’t able to comfortably participate in sports and similar activities. Such girls are deprived of the type of learning they rightfully deserve,” she said. 

Ongoing initiatives

Currently, the Health Promotion Bureau leads initiatives on improving menstrual health and hygiene in Sri Lanka, including through incorporating menstrual hygiene into the existing school curriculums, capacitating teachers to provide knowledge on menstrual health and hygiene to students, and establishing a national working team consisting of nine ministries with the aim of working together to improve menstrual health. 

Dr. Balasuriya further noted: “The bureau works with NGOs, such as the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka, that conduct collective action against period poverty together with the French Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, helping improve and come up with sustainable and innovative ideas to combat period poverty.”

Other initiatives by the Health Promotion Bureau include conducting district-level training workshops with its health staff across the island and developing information, education, and material for the community. 

According to a 2024 Advocata Institute policy brief, in 2016, the absolute household period poverty rate stood at approximately 50%, suggesting that roughly half of the households with menstruating women do not include sanitary napkins in their household expenditure. 

Although the absolute household period poverty rate had decreased to around 40% by 2019, these figures nevertheless reflect the situation prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. The aftermath of the economic crisis is expected to have exacerbated this issue significantly. 

Against such a backdrop, it becomes crucial that these initiatives reach those in most urgent need, specifically schools in rural and plantation sectors. 

Dr. Balasuriya said: “The best way to reach rural schools effectively is to work with community-based organisations that work at a grassroots level and understand the communities they work within, since, for instance, the plantation community works very differently to the northern communities or the communities in the south. Therefore, it is very important to work with NGOs or community-based organisations that work within that area to reach schools effectively. 

“There also has to be a streamlined means through which all organisations working in the field of period poverty come together to collectively help eradicate period poverty instead of working alone. If we have a collaborative process, we can do far more effective work, especially in rural areas.”

Attempts by The Sunday Morning to contact the Minister of Education proved futile.