Who cares about mestrual hygiene of Indian women? Clearly not the government

The Indian government clearly doesn't understand that taxing sanitary products can only hamper menstrual hygiene of women.

Dipannita Saha Dipannita Saha
जून 19, 2017
Despite several campaigns and petitions, women are still taxed for bleeding every month. Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Political Immature

 

Menstruation is costly for women in India. Although the Indian government recently revised the taxes levied on sanitary products, they are still unaffordable for many--after all the changes were almost negligible. To make matters worse, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council recently decided to tax sanitary pads at 12%, ignoring all those who rallied for a total tax exemption.

And for those unlucky women who use tampons, the tax is now 18%. Apart from paying no attention to the fact that sanitary products shouldn't be taxed, the government decided to put them in the category of luxury goods. As if, shedding your uterine wall every month was a luxury--little do these men know.

Before GST, MP Sushmita Dev had petitioned the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for a 100% tax exemption on sanitary napkins. While another campaign named #LahuKaLagaan had urged him to do the same.

In fact, the Government had proposed a national policy to look into this matter after the uproar created by campaigns. According to the Times Of India, a national policy for women, framed by a group of ministers headed by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, was expected to be unveiled soon .

"Tax exemption on all menstrual hygiene products has also been proposed to ensure easy and affordable accessibility of these products," it stated.

However nothing happened. And women still have to pay tax because they bleed every month. They have to pay tax for being a woman--because menstruation is an important process that actually makes a woman, biologically saying.

A study conducted by AC Nielsen, Sanitary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right, had revealed that only 12% of the women in India use sanitary napkins. The shocking part of the report was that 70% women said that they can't even afford a sanitary napkin.
 
In a country where women are still unaware of menstrual hygiene, sanitary products, and consider menstruation as taboo, taxing isn't the best thing to do. The Government clearly doesn't care about the fact that due to inadequate menstrual protection, adolescent girls (age group 12-18 years) miss 5 days of school in a month (50 days a year). While, nearly 23% of these girls actually drop out of school after they started menstruating.

To be honest, what's the point of all these women-centric programs like beti bachao, beti padhao, when most girls quit studies after puberty?

You see menstruation isn't a process that is under anyone's control, it's a natural bodily process that occurs when a girl hits puberty. Girls in urban areas can still buy sanitary napkins, while those in rural areas are left at the mercy of cotton rags, dried leaves, ash, and even cow dung cakes. Imagine the kind of diseases they are exposed to just because they can't afford a proper sanitary product. And whose fault is that?

If India had actually done away with tax on sanitary products, they wouldn't have been the first one to do so. Our country would have joined the ranks of other progressive nation, including Canada, United Kingdom (effective from 2018), Ireland, and Slovakia, with several US states following close at heel.

And if you try to point out that these are all developed countries and it's difficult to have same taxation rules in a developing one, then let us tell you that Kenya also has done this. Yes, Kenya.

You see, what else can you expect when the decisions are taken by men--because obviously they have no idea what menstruation is. Same men, who thought that sindoor and bangles deserved to be in the 0-tax slab. Obviously because men would care more about the patriarchal symbols of marriage in a woman's body than her health. Who cares if she doesn't have access to sanitary products? Our Government surely doesn't.

Also Read: Centre proposes tax exemption on menstrual products and we couldn't be happier

Also Read: Sanitary napkins in India could soon become tax free thanks to this female MP's petition

Also Read: Delhi Government just reduced tax on sanitary napkins and we couldn't be happier 

 

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