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Politicians back Congress MP’s petition for tax-free sanitary napkins

It is rare for a Member of Parliament to take up a cause which affects millions of women on a…

Politicians back Congress MP’s petition for tax-free sanitary napkins

(Photo: Getty Images)

It is rare for a Member of Parliament to take up a cause which affects millions of women on a popular social media platform. So when Sushmita Dev, MP from Silchar, Assam, started a petition on Change.org requesting Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to abolish tax on sanitary napkins about a month ago, everyone who matters took note.

From Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, BJP MP Varun Gandhi, NCP MP Supriya Sule, BJD MP Jay Panda and lakhs of commoners have supported and endorsed the petition.

In her petition, which she started on International Women's Day on 8 March, Dev says, "Despite their utility, sanitary napkins are taxed making them expensive for the middle-class and unaffordable for rural women. Surprisingly, condoms and contraception are tax- free in India, but sanitary napkins are not".

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Already the petition has garnered about 2.5 lakh signatures ahead of Sushmita Dev's meeting with the Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Thursday. Dev told The Statesman: " My motivation to start this petition came from hundreds of girls living in rural India who still face social stigma and many problems due to lack of awareness and affordability. They should not be burdened with a tax that makes safe, hygienic products more expensive".

She said, "There are many social activists and NGOs who have taken up this cause and have been instrumental in making it a revolution. I have received support from all quarters, including various top leaders from my own party and even from other MPs. Already, states like Haryana, Goa, Maharashtra and even Union Territory of Pudducherry have either reduced or abolished taxes on sanitary napkins. I took this matter to the GST Council since we are going to have 'one nation one tax regime'. I am hopeful that we will be able to pull it through."

As per data, only about 12% of the 355 million women in India use sanitary napkins and have to pay varying VAT statewise that goes up to 14%. As per statistics, a whopping 70 % of women cannot afford sanitary napkins in India.

On Wednesday, Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research, not only signed the petition but also shared the trending petition on twitter with #TaxFreeWings tagging Arun Jaitley's official twitter handle as well. The petition also proposes a solution in terms of a 100% tax exemption for the production and distribution of environment and health-friendly sanitary napkins to add impetus to the reach of the product.

 

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