ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 26th June. Click Here for more information.
A petition to get sanitary napkins free from GST bracket Context
- Online petition on March 8, requesting the Union Finance Minister to make eco-friendly sanitary pads tax-free and reduce the tax bracket of other napkins from 12-14% to 5% gets people attention.
The appeal
- The petition found more than three lakh people support.
- The Union Health and the Women and Child Development Ministers also agreed that it was a worthy proposal.
- The Finance Minister recognized that it was a cause proposed by activists and non-governmental organizations.
- Only the members of GST Council did not pay heed to such important issue.
- A woman needs all means possible to help her during menstruation can only be forcefully argued by women.
Issue of Women Empowerment
- If women essentials get taxed, the rising price effect the woman workforce, school dropout’s and also leads to rise in gender crimes.
- The petition has always been received by the government with sensitivity, and have drawn reassurances.
- The right to equality is not an easy right to ensure and enforce, somehow.
India needs to update
- India is still a country where many women are still dependent on cloth-based products as they cannot access high quality, expensive personal hygiene products.
- Lack of sufficient information about sanitary pads is still present in rural areas.
- Women even now has to use hay, ash, sand, wood shavings, newspaper, dried leaves, or even plastic as a substitute for a hygiene product, despite subsidized napkins being distributed under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) in many States.
- In India, 70% of women still claims that their families cannot afford to buy sanitary pads.
