You are just trying to survive a normal day in college when your body decides, “yeah, now is the time.” The realization hits, and so does the panic. You check your bag, pretending you are low-key not panicking. And wow, your bag is thriving. It has everything. Lip gloss, charger, random receipts, trash, emotional baggage, just not that one thing you desperately need right now. A sanitary pad. So, naturally, you turn to your friend. A quiet, urgent whisper. She checks her bag and the only thing she got for you is a sympathetic look.
But hey, it is fine. You are not the first person this has happened to. And most importantly, you are in college. A place that is supposed to have you covered. You tell yourself that there will be something in the washroom— a simple solution to a very normal and a very routine situation. Because this isn’t an emergency. It is not unexpected. It is just a part of life that half the population deals with, quietly, every single month. The least you expect is for that to be acknowledged in the most basic way.
So you make your way to the washroom and spot the vending machine like it is your saving grace. You dig out 10 rupees, feed it in, and wait for that small mechanical drop. And just like that, the problem is solved. For a moment everything feels normal again. But then the realization settles in, quiet but persistent. You paid for this. Your college asked you to pay for something you did not choose, did not plan, and did not control. For something that was not optional or avoidable.
More than just 10 rupees.
It is not about the money. Ten rupees is nothing. But the principle behind it? That is everything. Why is our college charging us for something so fundamental? Pads are not snacks or a last-minute purchase you choose to make. They are basic requirement. And when your institution puts a price on that, it sends a message that your needs are optional, conditional, and payable.
Colleges takes pride in being inclusive, supportive and empowering. They talk about equality, student welfare, and women empowerment. Celebrating Women’s Day or what not. But what does that really mean if, in moments like this, the support comes with a price tag? Commercializing a natural biological process?
That small moment in the bathroom lingers more than it should. Because the issue is not whether the pad was available but rather how it was made available. The amount is small enough to ignore but significant enough to question. Because it is not about the affordability, it is about the intent.
Inequality shows up in the smallest detail of everyday life
What counts as essential?
Charging for sanitary pads in college setting sends a subtle message that this is something extra, something optional. Because they are not charging you for hand wash or water from the water cooler or tissues or dryers. No coins, no conditions. These are understood as basic needs. So why is menstruation treated differently? Why does one basic need gets normalized as free, while the other is quietly turned into something you have to purchase? No one would calmly insert ten rupees just to wash their hands and call it “convenient”. It would be called what it is- unreasonable.
Half the student population experiences menstruation, yet the system does not reflect that reality the same way it does for other needs.
the Unquestioned Reality.
What is more concerning is how this is accepted. Like, how it is so normal for a girl to put ten rupees in a vending machine to get access to a sanitary pad in her college. No one talks about it, and no questions are raised against it. Imagine if every basic need worked like this. But it does not because we have collectively decided some things should never be commodified. And the problem is that menstruation has not been given that same respect. And that is exactly what needs to be changed. Because something so natural and so common should never have to be justified, let alone paid for.
The problem might seem small to a lot of people. And maybe that is why it has stayed unquestioned. But at that moment it does not seem small but rather uncomfortable, slightly stressful, and quite unfair. And when that experience repeats itself for many students, it starts to matter more than we realize