Getting GST right:

Getting GST right:

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.