The exemption of sanitary napkins from GST assumes importance in the context of the broader questions of empowerment of women and their right to equality and equal opportunity. While the scope of the discourse on gender equality and women’s empowerment covered the greater opportunities for women to participate in diverse areas of public life and decision making bodies, the issue of menstruation process, which is natural and essential and often used to exclude women and treat them as a source of contamination and defilement, had been inadequately addressed.
Across the world, along with customs and traditions associated with religion, other patriarchal cultural practices exclude women from participation in daily activities during their menstrual cycle. Menstruation has been used to restrict women’s movement and deny them access to many life opportunities, but most leading public figures in history, who championed the cause of women’s rights and spearheaded movements for their upliftment, hardly discussed menstruation in the public sphere. In the Constituent Assembly, when Dr Ambedkar moved the article of the Constitution for abolishing untouchability, an attempt was made by some members of the Assembly to stall it. They asked Dr Ambedkar to define untouchability, and one member went to the extent of asking if the proposed article would cover “untouchability” associated with women during their menstrual cycle.
Such questions raised in the Constituent Assembly are indicative of the mindset governing the leading public figures entrusted with the responsibility to build the nation by framing the fundamental law of the land. Barring Gandhi who discussed the problems concerning menstruation in some his letters addressed to Prabhavati, a freedom fighter and social activist, we do not come across any instance of public discourse on menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Today, it is being discussed more openly, and with recurring regularity in numerous fora. This is an outcome of the rising trend of interrogation of patriarchy and the larger debates around gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley’s initial reluctance to exempt sanitary pads from GST on the ground that Chinese sanitary napkins would flood the market, brought out his lack of confidence in the Make in India mission. It stands out especially because of his government’s affirmation of its importance to harness the entrepreneurial potential of Indians. A government which blows its own trumpet and coins the slogan “Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao”, ostensibly claiming credibility as a protagonist of gender equality, failed to recognise sanitary napkins as an essential item and placed it in the category of luxury items which attracted 12 % GST.
It is tragic that the GST regime, launched with much much pomp and splendour to give India a uniform tax structure and strengthen the unity of our country based on common economic factors, completely lost sight of the issue of tax free sanitary napkins even when there was a vibrant ecosystem created by women and pulsating with demand to remove the tax on sanitary napkins. One of the finest initiatives to create such an ecosystem was taken up by Congress MP Shrimati Sushmita Dev, in her petition to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before the onset of GST, to provide tax-free sanitary napkins to women of India. It was taken forward by Shri Tiruchi Siva, a Rajya Sabha MP from DMK, who, while participating in the discussion on International Women’s Day in 2018, put forth the demand for abolishing GST on sanitary napkins. The movie Padman gave the ecosystem new visibility and was made tax free for making the viewers more sensitive to the issue of menstrual hygiene and affordable access to sanitary napkins.
The demand to axe the tax on sanitary napkins is a global one. It has assumed the proportions of a movement. In the U.K., because of the Labour Government, the tax on menstrual hygiene products was considerably reduced in the early part of the twenty-first century. Last year, MPs backed the abolition of the “tampon tax”, after the government accepted a Labour amendment to the budget. In the European Union, the tax cut on menstrual hygiene products has been a norm for long. Similarly, in Australia, the Labour Party promised to put an end to tax on sanitary napkins once voted to power.
In India, the movement for affordable and tax-free sanitary napkins augurs well for the cause of women’s greater freedom from patriarchal values and culture. It is rather sad that it has taken one full year after the advent of GST era to make sanitary napkins free from tax. It is a small step in the direction of empowerment of women. The larger and more challenging dimensions of women empowerment, like reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, should be taken forward with a determined effort.
The introduction of the Constitution Amendment Bill on 9th March 2009 by the UPA, to reserve 33 percent of seats for women in legislatures, and its passage by the Rajya Sabha constituted a historic event for the cause of the greater representation of women in politics (The bill was never taken up in the Lok Sabha and lapsed with the dissolution of the House in 2014). It must be taken forward. The NDA Government, which took one year after the onset of GST to abolish the tax on sanitary napkins, should also be sensitive to the larger cause of women’s empowerment and safety in India, to disprove the Thomson Reuters report about India being the most unsafe country for women.
The Author served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K.R.Narayanan and had a tenure as Director in Prime Minister’s Office during 2004-2009.