Sanitary pads should be made entirely tax free. What I don’t understand is why men in India are having troubles with women and other supporters of the healthy cause who are fighting sensibly – who are these men to comment?
These are the same men who blindly follow and apparently love PM Modi ji and his other illiterate ministers in the cabinet, even more so than their wives – I could literally prove that to you.
Only this sort of a blind faith leads to the birth of autocracy and totalitarian regime. It wouldn’t be long before our leader may dwindle from the path of serving the nation but rather spread hostility and rampage like Hitler and Stalin. Respect him, not worship him. Stop equating a man to God by your Jai Jai-kaars, not in my name, not in my God’s name.
I, being your *upper caste* ‘Brahminical’ Hindu, take offense my God being brought to the same level as a man who has been accused of crimes in the past. It’s all DIRTY politics in here so kindly refrain from bringing in religion in between.
And people need to stop blindly believing in their religion. If your religion convinces you to hate somebody, you need to get a new one – Someone very wisely said that. Become human beings first then a Musalman or a Hindu.
The higher power that created us may not even be called Bhagwan or Jesus or Allah or whatever because as far as my knowledge goes, no one has seen him, there’s no scientific evidence of their existence. Anyway, coming back to the point.
WHY SHOULD MENSTRUAL PADS NOT BE MADE TAX FREE?
There’s not a single reason. Social enterprises and NGOs are running campaigns in the wake of menstrual health and hygiene awareness.
And now when bindis, sindoor and all this solah shringar, which btw is something, ladies today don’t even use anymore have been kept under 0% tax bracket, why can’t something which SHOULD be raised awareness about by the government be made tax free? That’s the least what government could do. If you could take initiative to build toilets, which btw is a commendable initiative, why not run campaigns for menstrual health when the motive behind it is more or less the same – Hygiene.
The appeal to government for tax exemption had been running way before since GST. It gained attention at the time of application of GST because this was the time when action could actually have been taken but No. Bindi sindoor free Kar dia ji, after all sabhi auratein shadi shuda hoti hain. Adolescent girls should start putting them on after hitting puberty.
I must remind those who disagree – Menstruation is because of which you were given birth. Yes, you the priest, the maulvi – who tell women not to enter the temple premises while on periods – your very essence wouldn’t have existed had it not been for your mother menstruating. And if it’s so much of an issue, letting your mother, sisters and wives go through the hard time of inconvenience caused by periods – which btw is constituted by mood swings, menstrual cramps and discomfort besides the fear of staining and making mess – you should all give up your dream of extending your families and let your women go through tubectomy/hysterectomy. After all, who would want to bear so much pain just in order to *let the world run, carry on*. Trust me, if it came down to it, if women of the world came together, they could easily stop the very existence of the entire human race. So stop constraining women and their matters.
This happens also because of the myths and taboos associated with matters pertaining to sexual health and the lack of sex education in Indian society, which is also somewhere responsible for rape, child molestation cases here. We are afraid and too awkward to talk about sex. Well, let alone that. We are afraid of 12 year olds hearing the word ‘intercourse’ which is probably the most sophisticated euphemism for the dogmatic three letters S.E.X. Let them hear it from others, from other illegal sources, but not from their own family. Constraint evokes Curiosity. The brouhaha, the big deal we make out of these natural matters makes the victims suffer in silence and frustration. What we fail to realise is stigmatising all these natural processes, crucial to the existence of humanity, when looked and made to look by children the same way, by a healthy approach can actually develop our society.
So, I hereby conclude by demanding to understand the need of tax rebate on sanitary pads as they are not a product of luxury but a necessity.
P.S. This is in no way supposed to be interpret as Anti-GST or whatever. It’s about a serious drawback that there is with the law makers of the country. I don’t even know what GST is, I’ll get to know whether or not it’s good once I order my burger and compare it to what it used to cost me before.