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DR. JAYA THAKUR v. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Supreme Court Of India

Nov 12, 2024

Judgment

CaseIQ

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Factual and Procedural Background

The petitioner, Dr. Jaya Thakur, filed a public-interest writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking directions to the Union of India, the States and Union Territories to:

Provide free sanitary pads to every female child studying in classes 6 to 12; and
Ensure separate toilets for females in all government-aided and residential schools, along with related reliefs such as maintenance of toilets and awareness programmes on menstrual hygiene.

On 28 November 2022 notice was issued. After receiving counter-affidavits from the Union and some States, the Court on 10 April 2023 directed the Union to engage with all States/UTs and devise a uniform national policy, while requiring States/UTs to submit their menstrual hygiene management strategies to the Mission Steering Group of the National Health Mission.

During the present hearing on 12 November 2024, the Court recorded that a “National Policy on Menstrual Hygiene for School Going Girls” has now been framed by the Union of India. The matter currently concerns the adequacy and implementation of that policy.

Legal Issues Presented

Whether the newly framed National Policy on Menstrual Hygiene adequately addresses the reliefs sought—namely free sanitary pads, separate female toilets, and related facilities—in government and government-aided schools.
What further directions, if any, are required to ensure accurate data collection and effective implementation of menstrual hygiene measures across States and Union Territories.

Arguments of the Parties

Respondent (Union of India)

Informed the Court that a comprehensive National Policy on Menstrual Hygiene has been formulated pursuant to the Court’s directions.
Submitted that additional steps are necessary for its effective implementation; the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare will coordinate with States/UTs to develop detailed action plans and ensure sensitisation and awareness activities in schools.

Petitioner

Contended that the policy does not fully meet the reliefs prayed for in the writ petition.
Highlighted alleged inaccuracies in the policy’s statistical data—specifically, usage figures for sanitary products that total 129%, suggesting unreliable data.
Asserted that the policy was framed without adequate ground-level assessment; cited conditions observed in District Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, where schools reportedly lack peons, housekeeping, and access to sanitary pads for middle-school girls.
Requested the Court to direct the Union to correct the data and undertake a realistic assessment before finalising and implementing the policy.

Table of Precedents Cited

No precedents were cited in the provided opinion.

Court's Reasoning and Analysis

The Bench (Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Pankaj Mithal) noted that:

A national policy has been devised in response to the Court’s earlier directions.
The policy outlines its vision, objectives, targets, components, ongoing programmes, and delineates the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.
Despite this development, effective implementation remains pending; concerns raised by the petitioner regarding data accuracy and ground-level realities warrant examination.

Recognising these concerns, the Court considered it appropriate to seek clarification from the Union of India before issuing further substantive directions.

Holding and Implications

Interim Order: The Court requested the Additional Solicitor General to examine the issues highlighted by the petitioner—particularly data inconsistencies and implementation gaps—and to “clarify the position” by the next hearing. The matter was adjourned to 03 December 2024 for further consideration.

Implications: The ruling does not finally dispose of the writ petition. It maintains judicial oversight over the formulation and execution of menstrual hygiene measures in schools, signalling that accurate data and practical implementation will be scrutinised before the policy gains judicial approval. No new precedent was set at this stage; the immediate effect is the Union’s obligation to provide a detailed clarification and potential revisions to its policy.

Show all summary ...

W.P.(C)No.1000/2022 ITEM NO.30 COURT NO.15 SECTION PIL-W

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition(Civil) No.1000/2022 DR. JAYA THAKUR Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s) Date : 12-11-2024 This petition was called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE J.B. PARDIWALA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PANKAJ MITHAL For Petitioner(s) Mr. Varun Thakur, Adv. Mr. Deepak Goel, Adv.

Mrs. Tanuj Bagga Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ramkaran, Adv.

Dr. M.K. Ravi, Adv.

Mr. Manoj Kumar Khanna, Adv. M/S. Varun Thakur & Associates, AOR For Respondent(s) Mrs. Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G. Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G. Mr. Amrish Kumar, AOR

Mr. Veer Vikrant Singh, Adv.

Mr. Rohit Pandey, Adv.

Ms. Shradha Deshmukh, Adv.

Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR

Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv.

Mr. Arjun D Singh, Adv.

Ms. Ankita Sharma, AOR

Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR

Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.

Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv.

Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR

Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv.

Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR

Mr. Prashant Bhagwati, Adv. Ms. Devyani Bhatt, Adv. Ms. Neha Singh, Adv. Mr. Vaibhav Srivastava, A.A.G. Ms. Sugandha Anand, AOR Ms. Rajnandani, Adv.

Mr. Bhargav Ravikumar, Adv. Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Mrs. Anu K Joy, Adv. Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Gopal Elker, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Singh- G.a., Adv. Mr. Abhijeet Pandove, Adv. Ms. Chhavi Khandelwal, Adv. Dr. Ravindra Chingle, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. T.k. Nayak, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Mr. Vikas Bansal, Adv. Mr. Siddhesh Shirish Kotwal, AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. Akshat Kumar, AOR Ms. Anubha Dhulia, Adv. Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Ms. Devyani Gupta, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Anand, Adv.

Mr. C Kranthi Kumar, Adv. Mr. Saushriya Havelia A, Adv. Mr. Danish Saifi, Adv. Mr. Sravan Kumar Karanam, AOR Mr. Aniket Singh, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Ms. Madhumita Bhattacharjee, AOR Ms. Debarati Sadhu, Adv. Ms. Srija Choudhury, Adv. Mr. Anant, Adv.

Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv. Ms. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv. Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv. Krishna Dubey, Adv.

Mr. S.N. Tredal, AOR

Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv.

Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Kurup, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

1. We take note on 10^th April 2023, this Court passed the following order:-

"1 The petitioner, who is a social worker, has instituted a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution in public interest seeking a direction to the respondents - the Union of India, the States and Union Territories to ensure the provision of (i) free sanitary pads to every female child studying between classes 6 to 12; and (ii) a separate toilet for females in all government aided and residential schools. Apart from this, certain other consequential reliefs have been sought including the maintenance of toilets and the spread of awareness programmes.

2 Though the reliefs which have been sought in the petition under Article 32 are not exhaustive of the subject, the petition raises important issues of public interest bearing on the need for sanitation and menstrual hygiene for females who are studying in schools.

3 Notice was issued on 28 November 2022.

4 A counter affidavit has been filed by the Union Government as well as by some States.

5 We have heard Mr Varun Thakur, counsel for the petitioner and Ms Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Solicitor General for the Union of India.

6 The counter affidavit which has been filed by the Union of India indicates that three Ministries of the Union Government, namely, the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Jal Shakti and Education deal with the subject matter, to the extent to which they fall within their own domains. At the same time, it has been submitted that the States have also a vital role to play since education and health are State subjects.

7 At the present stage, we are of the considered view that it would be appropriate if the Union Government engages with all the State governments and Union Territories to ensure that a uniform national policy is formulated with sufficient leeway for the States and Union Territories to make adjustments, based on the prevailing conditions in their territories.

8 Bearing in mind the importance of the issue which has been raised, we direct that all States and Union Territories must submit their menstrual hygiene management strategies and plans which are being executed either with the help of funds provided by the Central Government or through their own funds to the Mission Steering Group of the National Health Mission within a period of four weeks.

9 The Mission Steering Group shall reevaluate the national guidelines based on the experiential learning of the previous decade or so. For this purpose, we nominate the Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the nodal officer to facilitate coordination with all the other Ministries of the Union and with the State governments and the Union Territories.

10 Apart from the above direction, the States and Union Territories 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 for their respective territories. All States and Union Territories shall also indicate the steps which have been taken to provide for the availability of low cost sanitary pads and vending machines in schools and for appropriate disposal mechanisms. Besides making a provision for ensuring the availability of low cost sanitary pads and vending machines in all schools, they shall also ensure that disposal mechanisms are available in schools/school complexes with enrollment of female students in upper primary, secondary and higher secondary classes for safe disposal of sanitary pads.

11 An updated status report shall be placed on the record by the Union Government after three months.

12 List the Petition on 24 July 2023."

2. We are informed that in pursuance of the directions issued by this Court as contained in para 7 of the Order referred to above, the Union of India has framed National Policy as regards "Menstrual Hygiene for School Going Girls". The policy talks about the vision, the objections, the target the policy components the current programmes and in the last the rules and responsibilities of the stakeholders.

3. Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, the learned ASG submitted that still much is required to be done for proper and effective implementation of the policy. The learned ASG informed the Court that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare shall coordinate with the States/UTs for drawing up their respective action plans ensuring that all aspects of Menstrual Hygiene Policy are drawn up in a comprehensive manner enabling effective roll out of the policy for school going girls of

Government and Government-Aided Schools. In addition, the stakeholder Ministries shall ensure that specific action plans to facilitate the roll out and effective implementation of the policy are duly drawn up. Special attention shall be given for sensitization and awareness activities for promoting safe menstrual hygiene practices in all the schools.

4. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the policy framed by the Union of India in no manner takes care of the reliefs prayed for in the petition. Apart from this, according to the learned counsel, there are glaring inconsistencies in the data relied upon in the policy documents. The learned counsel pointed out that the last sub-para in clause 1 Introduction (last two lines from bottom), it has been stated that

"this improvement is largely due to increased awareness and accessibility of sanitary products, with 64.5% of girls using sanitary napkins, 49.3% using cloth and 15.2% using locally prepared napkins". According to the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, the said data is incorrect as the total of all the three categories comes to 129%. According to the learned counsel, if the data relied upon by the Union of India for the purpose of framing the policy is incorrect, it will be difficult to achieve the objectives. Learned counsel submitted that the Union of India be directed to correct its data and ascertain as far as possible the ground situation prevailing across the country before finalizing the policy and implementing the same. It was also highlighted that the policy has been framed without obtaining the

necessary information or rather without assessing the ground situation.

5. Learned counsel brought to our notice that during the recent visit of the petitioner to District Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, the petitioner found that there were no peons in the schools and there was nothing like house keeping in government middle schools. The petitioner also enquired with different people residing in various districts and found that the situation was very grim. It was also highlighted that there are no facilities to provide sanitary pads in District Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, especially in middle schools (age between 12 to 15 years) and in case if any girl would need the same, the school would ask the girl to go home.

6. We request Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, the learned ASG to look into the aspects highlighted by the petitioner referred to above and clarify the position by the next date of hearing.

7. Post this matter for further hearing on 03.12.2024.

(CHANDRESH) (POOJA SHARMA)

COURT MASTER (SH) COURT MASTER (NSH)