Campaigners refuse to throw in the towel over India's 'tax on blood'

In India, it is a subject usually spoken about in whispers. But after a social media campaign by a local politician, Bollywood stars, comedians and writers have joined thousands of people in tweeting videos of themselves urging finance minister Arun Jaitley to scrap sales taxes on sanitary towels.

The hashtag #lahukalagaan – meaning “tax on blood” – went viral in the country on Twitter this week, as citizens urged politicians to make sanitary pads more accessible to the 312 million menstruating women who still use rags during their periods.

If the campaign succeeds, India will be one of only a handful of countries, including Kenya and Canada, to stop taxing female hygiene products, which are categorised as luxury items and subject to a 12-14% tax rate in many Indian states.

The push for change was started by Sushmita Dev, an Indian MP, whose online petition calling for the tax to be scrapped collected more than 200,000 signatures. Campaigners also hope to increase awareness about menstrual hygiene in rural India, where the vast majority of women still use rags.

“There are two main reasons why [women don’t use pads or tampons],” says Dev. “Access and affordability. With this campaign, I’m hoping to make pads slightly more affordable.”

Dev argues the tax on sanitary pads is fundamentally unfair. “Women bleed, it’s natural. Why should they have to pay a tax every month for it?”

Her crusade began after an NGO approached Dev about obtaining funding for a single sanitary pad dispenser in Chekharcham. “That’s when I realised what a huge problem this was. That’s when I understood how many women around the country were still using cloths while menstruating. I realised how many girls weren’t going to school because of this.”

Dev’s visits to rural areas of Assam, one of India’s poorest states, made her realise how taboo the subject of periods and pads was outside cities. “I met one young girl who thought she was going to die when she had her period. She thought her insides must be rotting away. Nobody had told her what menstruation was.”

The popularity of her campaign is surprising in a country where menstruation is still considered unclean, and women are still fighting for their right to enter temples and mosques while on their periods.

“Politicians are realising that women are a big constituency,” says Dev. “I haven’t had any men asking why I’m raising this issue so publicly. In fact, many of my male colleagues offered to come with me and show support when I present this to the finance minister.”

India is currently undergoing its biggest tax reform since independence. From this year, all goods and services across the country will be part of a single, federalised system. Last month, India’s minister for women, Maneka Gandhi, wrote to the finance minister urging him to support Dev’s campaign.

“Once lower cost options are made available to women, we could consider slowly moving them towards using biodegradable pads,” Gandhi said. (Courtesy The Guardian UK)