The PAN saw in budget this Monday the implementation of a plan to combat menstrual poverty that provides for free distribution of products to social action students in school, SNS users facing economic failure, prisoners and the homeless.
In the Budget and Finance Committee (COF), in parliament, the PAN proposal to combat menstrual poverty was the first approved amendment proposal, in the context of the National Budget 2023.
According to the proposal, which had the votes for PS, PAN, Bloco de Esquerda and the abstentions of PSD, Chega, Liberal Initiative and PSD, the government will approve next year the implementation of a national plan to combat menstrual poverty and the “stigmatization of menstruation”.
The measure therefore aims at the free distribution of menstrual hygiene products “in primary and secondary education institutions, to beneficiaries of school social actions who request it, from academic year 2023/2024”, in higher education institutions, “at the request of recipients of a scholarship. within the framework of the social support system for following courses given in higher education institutions, from the academic year 2023/2024”, in health centers or in groupings of health centers of the National Health Service, “to users in situations of economic inadequacy that call for it”.
The distribution will also apply in prisons to prisoners who request it and to the homeless, in cooperation with private social solidarity institutions.
To justify the proposal, the PAN argues that “monthly expenditure on menstrual hygiene products averages nine and a half euros per month, which equates to about five thousand euros over a lifetime”.
On the other hand, the proposal of the Bloco de Esquerda that provided for the “free distribution of menstrual products in health centers, schools, higher education institutions, prisons and among socially excluded populations and who, due to this exclusion, have less contact with public health structures” from 2023 .
Source: DN
