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News: The Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment while hearing a case on nationwide implementation of the Centre’s menstrual hygiene policy for school-going girls.
About Menstrual Hygiene as a Fundamental Right
- The Supreme Court held that the right to menstrual hygiene and access to related products is part of the right to life under Article 21.
- Case Background: The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan during a hearing related to menstrual hygiene in schools.
- Supreme Court Observation
- Article 21 (Dignity and Privacy): The Court ruled that dignity cannot remain an abstract idea and must include conditions that prevent humiliation, exclusion, and avoidable suffering.
- Forcing girls to choose between education and menstruation violates the right to live with dignity.
- Article 14 (Substantive Equality): The SC observed that equal treatment without addressing existing disadvantages perpetuates inequality.
- The absence of menstrual hygiene facilities converts a biological reality into structural exclusion.
- Article 21A (Right to Education): Lack of menstrual hygiene facilities acts as an infrastructural barrier to education.
- Removing this barrier is necessary to make education truly free, compulsory, and accessible.
- Article 21 (Dignity and Privacy): The Court ruled that dignity cannot remain an abstract idea and must include conditions that prevent humiliation, exclusion, and avoidable suffering.
