Paris (AFP)
Senator LREM Patricia Schillinger recommended Thursday to experiment with free periodic protection to fight against the "plague" of menstrual precariousness that affects precarious women, incarcerated and many college students.
"Poor workers, homeless women, imprisoned, slum dwellers, students: many women are affected by menstrual precariousness," she said, handing over to the Secretary of State for Equality, Marlene Schiappa, the conclusions of the mission entrusted to him in May on the occasion of the "World Day of Menstrual Hygiene".
"The management of women's hygiene and access to periodic protections are human rights: dignity, equality between women and men, access to education, women's health. "she said.
During her life, a woman uses 10,000 periodic protections. According to an Ifop study commissioned in 2019 by Dons solidaires, cited in the report, one in ten renounces changing periodic protection as often as necessary for lack of money.
In her report, consulted by AFP, Mrs. Schillinger recommends experimenting for one year with the provision of free menstrual protection in places frequented by precarious and accompanied persons (day centers, social hotels, centers social actions), in prisons and educational institutions (colleges, high schools, universities).
In the latter, different means could be tested: near the infirmary, in the girls' toilets or in the premises of school life.
The budget, "difficult to calculate" according to the senator, is estimated at 320,000 euros per department for precarious women, 79,000 euros for women imprisoned (2,521 April 1), and about 20 euros per year per student.
Cities, intercommunalities, departments, regions, National Education: the Senator called for "all actors" to "participate in experimentation on the basis of volunteering", as initiatives taken at the University of Lille , at the University of Rennes 2, or "hygiene kits" distributed to the most precarious women by associations.
"Free distribution, without prior request and without control, is the key to success," insisted Schillinger, hoping that "in a few years we find it as natural as having paper and soap" in the bathroom.
"There is still a lot of work to do on this subject," said Secretary of State Marlene Schiappa. She noted "very concrete action lines" in this report, without committing to any of them for the moment.
© 2019 AFP