Sanitary Napkins sent to Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, July 13: As part of protest gainst GST, The students of SFI, ABVP(Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) and All India Democratic Womens' Association (AIDWA) sent sanitary napkins to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Wednesday.

The Students demanding the immediate withdrawal of GST on sanitary napkins to mark the beginning of the All India Campaign "Bleed Without Fear, Bleed without Tax".

Sanitary pads are considered as luxury items and taxed accordingly when the reality is that these are an utter necessity of a woman for healthy life.

Earlier SFI had demanded an immediate withdrawal of the added taxation on sanitary napkins and had asked the government to ensure the maximum reach of the menstrual protection tools in lowest prices.

Anuradha Kumari, another DU student said, "Items like sindoor, bangles, and bindis have been made tax free. Condoms and other contraceptives are also exempt, as they should be. Then why not sanitary pads? This is an attack on half of the country’s population," she said.

Speaking about the campaign, SFI state secretary Prashant Mukherjee said, "Sanitary Pads are considered as luxury items and taxed accordingly, but the reality is that these are part of basic necessities for a healthy and hygienic life of a woman.

A study by AC Nielsen, published in the International Research Journal of Social Sciences, shows that among women who do not use sanitary pads Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70 per cent more common than those who have access to it."

He further said the same study shows that in North India over 30 per cent girls stopped going to school after the start of their menstrual cycle due to lack of adequate sanitary products.

Mukherjee said "83 percent of these girls said their family cannot afford sanitary pads.Now further inflation in the prices will push many more poor women and girls of this country away from a healthy reproductive life".