I WASN’T a huge fan of the movie I, Daniel Blake, which seemed to shoehorn in as many real-life issues as it could, often at the expense of convincing dialogue. (“Oh, and I’ve only got that bedroom tax to pay as well”...)
But real the issues in the film certainly are – some of them based on the experiences of Scottish foodbanks, such as the scene where a single mum denied benefits is so hungry she tucks into cold baked beans straight from the shelves.
Another scene shows the woman – Katie – shoplifting tampons. It raises a problem Ewan Gurr, Scottish manager of the Trussell Trust, became familiar with from the charity’s foodbanks. “I was in Dundee and a young woman came in. We had some non-food items, including feminine hygiene products but she said ‘I won’t need those’.” She hadn’t had a period for several months and was told by her doctor they had stopped, she was so undernourished, Mr Gurr tells me. “Two weeks later she said ‘things are back to normal’. She was eating now and biology had kicked back in.”
But it was a different woman using a foodbank who really opened his eyes, he says. She was using a newspaper for sanitary protection. “We often hear about people who have to use toilet paper, but she was using newspaper for that as well.”
It is stories like that that led to the Period Poverty campaign. Being so poor that you have to choose between sanitary protection and food is a problem, but a uniquely female one. The Trussell Trust and other foodbanks are quietly working away to ensure tampons are available alongside the three-day emergency food parcels they provide, whenever possible. “It is a health issue”, Gurr says.
He doesn’t think it should be down to foodbanks, but thinks tampons should be made available free to any women who need them – at no cost and without stigma.
There is a momentum building to this cause. The issue has been championed at Holyrood by Labour MSP Monica Lennon, who had a members debate about it last autumn.
Ms Lennon plans to consult on the detail of a members bill, soon after the local elections. It is likely to propose women and girls are given access to free sanitary protection, with the MSP likening it to the universal provision of toilet paper. She favours a system like the C-Card which provides free access to condoms. Yesterday, the STUC passed a motion backing the Homeless Period campaign which calls on the Scottish Government to make tampons freely available through homeless shelters, as they are in New York. It also called on the Scottish Government to review the affordability of feminine hygiene products in Scotland.
The Government does appear to be listening, and has asked the Trussell Trust to gather empirical evidence of the demand within foodbanks.
Given that the subject remains relatively taboo, no-one really knows how many women struggle to afford what is – despite the fact VAT is still charged on tampons – not a luxury but a necessity.
The Trussell Trust’s research on the topic, due by the end of this year, should shed some light. But it is not yet clear what ministers will do when they get it.
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