It's a choice between food and sanitary pad, MP tells Zahid's daughter

Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah is the latest to rebut Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid, the daughter of the Umno president, for downplaying the seriousness of period poverty in the country.

Noting Nurulhidayah's insistence that sanitary pads "do not cost much", Maria said it was not about the price but the very limited funds that poor families have to work with.

"In my constituency of Petaling Jaya, I have distributed 1,000 packets of sanitary pads to B40 (families) due to their financial constraints.

"It is not about the price; it's a choice between buying food or buying pads. That's what is sad," Chin said on Twitter.

Nurulhidayah had said that period poverty in Malaysia was not comparable to India, as there were zakat centres and NGOs to help.

Period poverty is generally known as the lack of access to menstrual products, knowledge on menstruation or hygiene facilities.

During the Budget 2022 announcement, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said an estimated 130,000 teenage girls from B40 families do not have access to hygiene products, such as menstrual pads, due to financial constraints.

In response to this, the government said it will provide free personal hygiene kits every month to about 130,000 teenage girls from B40 families to tackle the issue of period poverty. -Mkini