In 2018, the Indian Menstrual Health Management (MHM) discourse witnessed a massive victory when the Indian government (after several protests and petitions) decided to exempt MHM products from the proposed 12% tax duty. The main argument of the aforementioned campaigns was that an additional tax will ‘increase’ the already existing unaffordability of MHM products among Indian menstruators.
MHM products even after being exempted from ‘luxury tax’ still cost nearly Rs.300 for Indian menstruators every month.
This very argument makes one wonder if MHM products are unaffordable despite the absence of a ‘luxury tax’ or in other words, are MHM products still a luxury for Indians?
Incomes & Expenditures
On average, Indian menstruators spend nearly Rs 300 per month, primarily buying sanitary pads or tampons. Now, this might not seem to be that big of an expense for one’s personal hygiene, it does look like an expensive affair considering 63 percent of Indian women earn less than Rs 10,000 a month.
Imagine having to spend 3% of your income just on your uterus –as glorious as it sounds, it isn’t an option you want to explore.
It is no doubt that a hygienic menstrual cycle is expensive for some and well, not so expensive for others. While some menstruators don’t need to worry about the money they spend on MHM products, most menstruators simply cannot afford to use these products. Due to this, several menstruators are forced to use rags, newspapers, and what not to deal with their cycles.
In retrospect
But this wasn’t always the case – menstruators have been living in the subcontinent since millenniums and they undoubtedly were able to manage their cycles well.
Although the infamous ‘disposable pad’ has clearly revolutionized the way contemporary societies perceive menstruation, it was never a necessity. The need for these pads didn’t exist until recently – not even after these pads were created.
Mind Games
In his concept of ‘Commodity fetishism’, Karl Marx suggests that the commodity inhibits its own desire – we, as individuals often feel that the desire for a particular commodity comes from within when in reality, the desire for the commodity comes from the very commodity. Ask yourself, did you want the iPhone before you knew it existed? NO! But you clearly believe that purchasing an iPhone will solve many of your problems – Often, the objects we perceive as our ‘needs’ are nothing but our ‘wants’.
Traditional and indigenous methods of MHM are sometimes looked down upon because of a western conception of what is ‘hygienic’ and ‘clean’.
This idea most definitely applies to disposable sanitary pads.
When tracing the history of this innovation, we find that during World War 1, when cotton shortage for bandages gave Kimberley Clark, a paper manufacturer the chance to sell its new highly absorbent paper tissues. It was found that excess paper tissues were being used by army nurses as sanitary napkins – an idea which was later marketed by Kotex.
Like many other things, this product also came in India to ease out British lifestyle, with European women using these pads – the very association of these pads with the ‘whites’ made it a symbol of power, wealth, and elitism.
The disposable pad was marketed in India with the keywords ‘cleanliness’, ‘hygiene’, and ‘comfort’ – advertisements that brought Victorian ethics at the forefront of marketed sexuality. Marketing strategies targeted ‘the Modern Woman’ who lives her life freely, without having to worry about the characteristic ailments of her sexuality (a phrase used to refer to ‘menstruation’ by the same marketers).
But we all know that wasn’t the case – at least not for rural women. Women in India for centuries had very well been working in farms and markets, managing their lifestyles by themselves and dealing with menstruation in ways which the British labeled ‘unhygienic’.
Therefore, the very ‘disposable pad’ which seems to be the foundation of Menstrual activism all around the globe can clearly be understood as an application of a ‘Western Capitalistic Model’ in the ‘Indian Context’.
Reconsidering traditions
It is clear that the disposable pad is not the necessity all menstruators need to strive for and with the long-list of disadvantages they bring, they aren’t what menstruators should strive for.
With growing environmental and physiological concerns posed by this product, many new products have started taking over the MHM market – most importantly ‘reusable cloth pads’.
These cloth pads, shaped similar to the disposable pads have seen an unprecedented rise of enthusiasm among consumers and one can’t seem to ignore that these cloth pads are literally a modified version of what indigenous societies have used for ages.
But have we truly realized that applying western capitalism in an Eastern society isn’t the best idea?
Conclusion
Almost all the activism surrounding Menstrual Health Management focuses on the ‘accessibility to these disposable pads’ – be it the State or various NGOs, almost all of us are concerned about the ‘number of people’ this product isn’t able to reach.
Raising this concern isn’t to say that disposable pads are bad and cloth pads are good, Menstruation is a phenomenon filled with the subjectivity of experience and a single product can definitely not satisfy all menstruating individuals.
It is to question the evident neglect the Period Industry is showing towards a particular MHM technique solely due to its prejudices – as by neglecting a set of already existing techniques simply because socio-economic structures make us believe that they are old and useless, we are also obstructing the possibility of an innovation which can perhaps resolve many existing issues surrounding Menstrual Health Management.