A group of social workers in Gwalior start a campaign encouraging women to write down their views on menstrual hygiene on sanitary napkins to mark their protest against it being placed under 12% GST. As part of the initiative, 1,000 signed sanitary pads have been sent to PM Narendra Modi, requesting him to get rid of the 12% GST
A group of social workers in Gwalior start a campaign encouraging women to write down their views on menstrual hygiene on sanitary napkins to mark their protest against it being placed under 12% GST. As part of the initiative, 1,000 signed sanitary pads have been sent to PM Narendra Modi, requesting him to get rid of the 12% GST
The campaign started on January 4. Speaking to ANI, Preeti Joshi, one of the founders of the social group, said that women in rural India can't afford Rs 100 on Sanitary napkins. "This situation discourages them from using sanitary napkins all the more. They end up falling prey to diseases. We hope that the women at least receive a GST-free napkin," she added.
Hari Mohan, another activist, said, "Sanitary napkins have been placed under 12% GST. Women use things during their menstrual days which is fatal to them. Instead of giving subsidy, it has been placed under luxury item. So we started this campaign. We aim to send 1000 pads to the govt by 3rd March."
The campaign in Madhya Pradesh is ironic, given that Bhopal just on Tuesday became the first station in the country to have a sanitary pad vending machine. The news was tweeted by both railway minister Piyush Goyal and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who is starring in Pad Man, a movie about Arunachalam Muruganantham, a Coimbatore-based social activist who revolutionised the concept of menstrual hygiene in rural India by creating a low-cost sanitary napkin machine.
In July last year, students from Left-backed Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) on Tuesday sent sanitary napkins to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, to demand an immediate withdrawal of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on them. The napkins had "bleed without fear"written on them.
The move was part of an all-India campaign titled 'Bleed Without Fear, Bleed without Tax'.
Under the newly introduced GST regime, sanitary pads have been put in the luxury item category and will attract a 12 per cent tax, which is just slightly lower than the 13.7 per cent tax in the previous indirect tax regime. "Sanitary pads are considered luxury items and taxed accordingly. The reality is that these are a necessity for a woman. Inflated prices will discourage poor women and girls from using pads," SFI president Vikas Bhadauria said.
The campaign was followed by a video on the issue, which went viral on social media on Monday, wherein a Delhi University student urged women across the country to join the fight against "unjust"taxation on sanitary pads."If condoms and contraceptives are tax-free, why not sanitary pads?"she had asked.
The campaigners cited a recent study published in the International Research Journal of Social Science, which stated that only 12 per cent of menstruating women use sanitary napkins, and over 88 per cent depend on alternative unhygienic ways such as unsanitised cloths, ashes, and husk sand. This leads to a decline in productivity by 31 per cent.
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