Among the countless other struggles that women face, the one thing most of us have in common is the pesky yet necessary struggle that is the monthly menstrual cycle, or periods.
The day 28 May is observed as ‘World Menstrual Hygiene Day’ in an attempt to break the silence and spark awareness around menstruation as well as to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene.
The stigma attached to this very natural phenomena often leads to unsafe and unsanitary menstrual hygiene practices, especially in a country like India, where menstruation is still considered taboo.
Keeping in mind the importance of female hygiene and menstruation products, something that has always bothered me is the fact that women are forced to shell out a lot of money every month, for something that we have no control over.
The Economics of Menstruation
As per the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP), women menstruate for 2,250 days (450 cycles) on an average. That means that women spend a considerable portion of their monthly expenditure on menstrual hygiene products, like pads, tampons and other products.
I crunched the numbers and this is what the average woman spends on menstrual hygiene (in Rupees) in her lifetime.
Expensive Products Made Worse by ‘Pink Tax’
Of the 35.5 crore menstruating women in India, only 12 percent women use sanitary napkins, as per an AC Nielson report. The remaining 88 percent rely on cloth, rags, hay, ash, wood shavings, newspapers, dried leaves, or even plastic.
Despite the fact that this 88 percent does not have access to menstrual hygiene products, the government, in 2017, slapped a GST rate of 12 percent on sanitary napkins The move outraged women across the country, with several protesting that menstrual hygiene was a necessity, not a luxury. However, nothing was done to alleviate the financial burden.
At the time, the Ministry of Finance justified the 12 percent GST rate by saying that in pre-GST times, sanitary napkins attracted concessional excise duty of 6 percent and 5 percent VAT and that the pre-GST estimated total tax incidence on sanitary napkins was 13.68 percent.
The above argument, however, ignores the fact that charging VAT/GST on an essential everyday item for menstruating women only serves to add to the misery.
The argument here is not that women who can afford it should pay for it – such a myopic view does not account for a large section of the population who cannot afford these products. The point is that it is an unfair economic burden because menstruation is not a choice.
And while we’re at it, it is no secret that women are paid lesser than their male counterparts. To add to that, women are charged higher prices when it comes to availing similar items and services. Asking us to pay our way through womanhood is honestly the last thing we need.
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