Free menstrual products could become standard in Czech schools
Toilet paper, soap, but also period products could soon become mandatory items in the toilets of primary and secondary schools across Czechia. The Ministries of Health and Education are ready to take the necessary steps, but a political agreement is still pending.
The Prague primary school, U Uranie, in the district of Strašnice, is one of the few schools that already provides free period products to its students. The school’s headmistress, Božena Palusgová, explains that while the school is not large in terms of student numbers, it is attended by children from socially disadvantaged families.
Last autumn, the school joined a project run by the organization People in Need, which supplies dozens of schools across the country with menstrual products for an entire year. Project coordinator Kristýna Bojič says the initiative aims to draw attention to menstrual poverty:
"The goal of our project is to highlight that menstrual supplies belong in school toilets. We want to point out that school founders and principals don’t need to worry about girls wasting these supplies. However, it is certainly not within our or other non-profit organizations’ means to provide supplies for all schools in the Czech Republic."
The city of Ostrava was the first in Czechia to address menstrual poverty systematically. Last year, it launched a pilot program providing free menstrual pads to female students, with specially designed wooden dispensers installed in school toilets. Deputy Mayor Zbyněk Pražák, who initiated the program, says he drew inspiration from similar initiatives abroad, including in Ireland and Scotland:
"In all primary schools—there are 54 in Ostrava—all girls’ toilets are equipped with trays containing pads that are freely available, just like toilet paper and soap."
For this to be the norm across all schools in Czechia, the sanitary ordinance would need to be amended stating that schools are required to equip their toilets with menstrual supplies. It is estimated that providing a year’s worth of supplies for all primary and secondary schools would cost approximately CZK 120 million.
The decree falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health, explains Deputy Health Minister Václav Pláteník:
"The Ministry of Health can issue this decree quite quickly—certainly by the summer—so that it can come into force by the next school year. However, it is the Education Ministry that must consider whether this obligation is appropriate."
For this legislative change to take place, the heads of the two ministries, or the entire governing four-party coalition, must reach an agreement. Experts suggest that the delay in implementing this change is less about the financial cost—which is relatively low—and more about the fact that menstruation is still rarely discussed in Czech society.
