Relief as India scraps tax on sanitary towels

Global Watch

Sun 22 Jul, 2018

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India sanitary towels

India has withdrawn a controversial tax on sanitary pads following a vocal campaign led by activists and Bollywood stars to boost female education and empowerment.

Saturday's (Jul 21) announcement is part of a slew of changes to the national goods and services tax (GST) intended to reduce the prices of around 90 key consumer goods, many of which target urban middle classes ahead of next year's general election.

"I think all women will be happy to know that sanitary pads will now have 100 per cent exemption. There will be no GST on sanitary pads," India's acting finance minister Piyush Goyal told journalists on Saturday.

Activists, Bollywood actors and some politicians had opposed the 12 per cent tax, citing a lack of access and affordability for a key hygiene product as a key barrier to female empowerment in the country.

A national survey report released earlier this year said around 60 per cent of young women aged between 16 and 24 years did not have access to sanitary pads.

The figure was as high as 80 per cent for some of India's poorer central and eastern states.

Reports in the last few years have linked absence of basic infrastructure such as toilets at Indian government schools outside big urban centres, and lack of access to sanitary pads, with higher dropout rates among girls.

"One of those days when a news brings tears of joy as a cause close to (your) heart gets fulfilled," Akshay Kumar, one of Bollywood's most popular stars, wrote on Twitter.