Menstruation, no matter how much you cringe at the mention of it, remains a very factual part of a woman’s biological existence. Let alone you, most of us women would want to get rid of it if we had our way, but unfortunately that is not an option. Now that that is out of the way, how fair is it to compromise on a woman’s menstrual protection by making sanitary napkins way too expensive to afford for most?
Stand-up comedian and actor Mallika Dua’s latest video addresses exactly this issue and has a very honest take on it which most of us can relate to. While the taxes on sanitary napkins have been brought down from a 12.5% to 5% by the Delhi government, a shocking 88% of women still cannot afford basic sanitary napkins or in fact anything remotely close to it. The things they use in place of napkins range from straw to sand to stones. Yes, that should make you cringe a lot more than the mention on periods.
Making sanitary napkins, especially the ones that come with unnecessary features of all sorts and are produced by major corporates, free is understandably not a possibility. Does not mean however that we make sure the women unable to afford napkins have an even worse run by taxing their biological process. Come to think of it, are you ever taxed for peeing or taking a dump? How is menstruation any different then?
Take a look at Mallika’s hilarious video with her signature Snapchat filter. The video has 15k views already and urges you to tweet out to Arun Jaitley with the hashtag ‘Lahu Ka Lagan’ in order to stop such exorbitant taxes on what is a basic need for women. Making everything from birth control pills to sanitary napkins unaffordable for women is a vicious plot that has always been beyond our understanding either way.
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