The
Supreme Court Monday directed the Centre to lay down a national model for
building toilets commensurate with the number of girl students in all
government-aided and residential schools across the country.
A
bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also asked the Union government
about the policy it has formulated for distribution of sanitary napkins to
female school students nationally.
The
bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the Centre
should bring uniformity in the procedure for distribution of sanitary napkins.
During
the hearing, the Centre informed the apex court that a draft national policy
for distribution of sanitary napkins free of cost to school-going girls has
been formulated and sent to stakeholders for eliciting their comments.
The
top court had earlier warned the states, which had not submitted their response
to the Centre on formulating a uniform national policy on menstrual hygiene for
girls studying in schools, that it will take recourse to the "coercive arm
of law" if they failed to do so.
On
April 10, the apex court had appointed the secretary of the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare (MOHFW) as the nodal officer to coordinate with states and
UTs and collect relevant data for formulating a national policy.
It
had noted that MoHFW, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Jal Shakti have
schemes on menstrual hygiene management.
It
had ordered all states and UTs to submit their menstrual hygiene management
strategies and plans that are being executed with the help of funds provided by
the Centre or through their own resources to the Mission Steering Group of the
National Health Mission within a period of four weeks.
The
apex court had said the states and UTs shall also indicate to the Mission
Steering Group of the National Health Mission the appropriate ratio of female
toilets for residential and non-residential schools in their respective
territories.
It
had asked all states and UTs to also indicate the steps which have been taken
to provide low-cost sanitary pads and vending machines in schools and their
appropriate disposal.
The
plea filed by Congress leader and social worker Jaya Thakur has said adolescent
females from poor background between the age of 11 and 18 years face serious
difficulties in receiving education, a constitutional right under Article 21A
of the Constitution.
"These
are adolescent females who are not equipped with and are also not educated by
their parents about menstruation and menstrual hygiene.
"The
deprived economic status and illiteracy lead to a prevalence of unhygienic and
unhealthy practices which have serious health consequences, increase obstinacy
and lead to eventual dropping out from schools," the petition says.