Czech schools must now provide free menstrual products to their pupils. A welcome move, activists say, who urge an even more systemic approach to tackling period taboos. From Balkan Insight.
“We like to think that we’re fighting for period dignity, not just against period poverty,” says Lucie Gregorova, co-founder of Sola Pomaha, a non-profit dedicated to providing menstrual supplies to people in need, social services, and marginalized women across the Czech Republic, on top of educational and advocacy work.
While precise data tends to be lacking or partial, “we realized that the problem of period poverty was much bigger than we expected,” she says, not only affecting homeless women but also single mothers, women in excluded localities, and young girls who may lack a mother figure or are being raised by older parents, for instance.
In the Czech Republic, a poll by the DM drugstore chain considers that one-third of women could see menstruation as a financial burden. Sola Pomaha, for its part, estimates that nearly 90,000 girls across Czechia may experience period poverty. In the EU, the European Commission estimates that menstrual poverty affects about 10% of females.
“It really is a systemic problem, and we needed a systemic solution,” Gregorova says, explaining that while Sola Pomaha pursued its much-needed material assistance work to the more vulnerable, the small NGO also put greater emphasis, from 2024, on lobbying activities with the help of Irena Hulova, the former head of advocacy at Amnesty International’s Czech branch.
Putting Period Pads in Schools
Along with other politicians, activists and non-profits worked to put period poverty on the map, and those efforts soon yielded positive results.
Based on a change of a Ministry of Health decree earlier last year, all primary and secondary schools across Czechia will, from January 2026, be mandated to provide free menstrual products in at least half of their toilets for their pupils.
“We wanted to push for this change fast and make use of the pre-election time,” activist Lucie Gregorova explains, when virtually all parties running in the October general election “wanted to show their importance and social sensitivity” to potential voters.
The nationwide measure comes on the heels of several similar projects introduced in selected Czech cities and municipalities, with schools in Ostrava and Liberec taking the lead in showing the measure could be introduced without pain or controversy and, crucially, for relatively little money.
According to former health minister Vlastimil Valek, the annual estimated costs range from about 900 euros for elementary schools to about 1,100 euros in secondary education, while Irena Hulova puts yearly expenditures at less than half that amount. The change, which mainly concerns the supply of pads although schools can choose to provide a mix of different sanitary products, does not apply to Czech universities.
“Menstruation is not a choice, but a natural part of life, and no student should have to go home, improvise with toilet paper, or be ashamed to ask for help because of it,” Valek said.
Proponents of the change had long argued in favor of a “common sense” measure to see period products as essential goods and make them as easily accessible as toilet paper or hand soap. Providing girls with “the greatest possible sense of security and safety” in an often stressful school environment, the move also aims to improve their mental health and reduce absenteeism caused by an unexpected period or lack of available supplies.
Choosing to put them in toilets – rather than, say, in the nurse’s office, at reception or in the teachers’ lounge – is also not fortuitous. “Free access means you’re free to have your menstruation without saying it to anyone or having to ask someone for help,” Gregorova says. “Would you imagine having to go ask at reception for a roll of toilet paper?”
“It’s not chocolate or a special thing you’re going to ‘steal.’ If you want to take some home, it’s because you need to,” she continues, addressing some of the criticism expressed by opponents to the move and mentioning the feedback from schools who’ve already introduced it. “They don’t see boys running around with tampons in their ears.”
Equally as important, putting period pads and tampons in school bathrooms tends to normalize the topic of menstruation. “This is also how we learn respect – for each other and for our own body,” argues Marta Gellova, a local Prague councillor for the now-ruling ANO party.
Against the Flow
Although the measure has been adopted relatively fast, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fair share of opponents – some, of both sexes, seeing this as the latest example of out-of-control “feminist privileges” imposed at the expense of men and society.
“If women get pads and tampons, men should get shaving foam and razors,” one user commented on a local media discussion thread. Other, potentially slightly more valid concerns pertain to the associated costs for financially strapped schools, or fears anything given out for free would be abused, hoarded, or wasted, thus defeating its purpose.
“Menstruation cannot be influenced – this does not mean that pads should be free,” argued conservative commentator Roman Joch. “Since we need to eat and drink, should water and food be free? Since we need to sleep, should beds be free?”
Some approach this criticism with patience and philosophy, hopeful that time and experience will increase the understanding that accessibility goes well beyond the mere issue of cost. “Things like this are never well received by everyone, because there are people who, by principle, do not think that any sort of help should be provided,” said Karel Bendlmajer, a school principal in the Usti nad Labem region, in Czechia’s poorer north.
According to Lucie Gregorova, opposition to the measure comes in two, overlapping strands of argument.
“One is directed against poor people,” portraying poverty, destitution, or financial struggles as a personal or parental failure rather than a systemic problem, she says. “ ‘What’s going to be the next free stuff?’ ‘If parents can’t afford sanitary pads, it’s their fault and responsibility.’ ‘That’s socialism all over again.’ That’s the kind of arguments we hear a lot in our work.”
The second, predictably, is more gender-based, often on a lack of understanding and information about periods, menstrual cycles, as well as of the physical and mental health risks associated with lack of access to proper sanitary and hygiene products. There’s also a generational aspect to it, Gregorova explains: “A lot of hate comes from women, especially over 50 years old, who say: ‘We took care of it without help and never bothered anyone about it, why can’t these young girls do the same?’”
Nevertheless, she adds, most of the criticism tends to come from men, with the prevalence increasing with both age and economic status.
The Kids Are Alright
In general, however, local surveys have shown that the vast majority of Czechs are in favor of making menstrual products freely available in schools. The debate, which comes against the backdrop of other like-minded measures adopted across European countries in recent years, has also contributed to increasing awareness about period poverty at large.
“Periods and period poverty are still a big taboo in Czech society,” Gregorova says, citing a 2021 survey that put it as the number one issue people don’t want to talk about.
“We’re slowly changing it and making it a topic of public discussion, but next year will really be about becoming more of a watchdog, see how schools implement the new measure and bring in more information,” she says, adding that their next goal is to push for menstrual products to be freely available not just in schools, but in all public buildings.
Another reform many have been advocating for is to reduce Czechia’s VAT rate on menstrual aids – the so-called “tampon tax” – which, at 21%, is currently one of the highest among EU states, behind only Hungary.
Back in 2020, then-Finance Minister Alena Schillerova had already started working on a proposal to drop the fiscal rate to 10%, before scrapping the plans.
“Menstrual poverty is a serious issue that I am prepared to pay attention to,” Schillerova, who returned as finance minister in December, said in an emailed statement. “We will consider any possible VAT adjustments, which unfortunately may not always be reflected in the price for the customer.”
Regardless, some are not convinced any fiscal reform would be a real game-changer. “It’s not a very popular thing to say, but we don’t really care if they change the tax rate,” Gregorova says, arguing a reduced VAT rate could only lead to increased profit margins of the distributors and companies with no ultimate reduction in the retail price. “It would be a nice gesture, but if you don’t have 50 crowns for tampons, you don’t have 35 crowns for tampons either.”
Most of the change needed comes down to better education from a young age, she believes, noting that while menstruation is briefly taught as part of the biology curriculum, some schools continue to separate boys and girls to address more specifically the topic of reproduction.
“It’s important that schools create an atmosphere where periods are shown as a natural part of growing up,” she says. “Boys don’t know much about it, but they want to, they’re very curious and interested. We teach them how to be allies, to discreetly offer a hoodie to put around her waist if they see a girl is leaking, for instance.”
“I really believe that if you give kids such an opportunity, they’ll use it,” she adds.
Jules Eisenchteter covers the Czech Republic for Reporting Democracy, a publication of BIRN. This article originally appeared on Balkan Insight and is republished by permission.
