Why is my bleeding considered a luxury
-Prarthana Thapa Chhetri
As if the words ‘untouchable’ and ‘impure’ were not taunting enough, the government made menstruation even worse by imposing a 13% luxury tax on menstrual products. It certainly does not help when the citizens are ignorant of this fact.
As ridiculous as it sounds, many Nepali women use terms like ‘nachhune’ and ‘para sarkeko’ to refer to themselves when they are menstruating. In many regions of Nepal, menstruating women are regarded as impure. Ironically, more than 80% of people in Nepal follow Hinduism and Ayurveda, one of the subsets of Hinduism, considers a menstruating woman as pure as a living goddess, and a menstruating woman is restricted to enter a temple simply because of the belief that the energy a murti possesses of gods and goddesses transfers into the woman, leaving the murti lifeless. However, Manusmirti states that “he who touches a menstruating woman is purified by bathing”, signifying that women are impure during their menstrual cycle. Under Chapter 4, Rules on Conduct II, it is explicitly mentioned that , “he must not speak with a menstruating woman, he must not eat food touched by a menstruating woman”. The scripture further states, “a woman becomes wholesome by taking a bath after her menstrual flow has ceased.”
Hinduism is not limited to a single book or a single philosophy and has multiple schools of thought and doctrines. Different schools of thought have their own meaning and interpretation when it comes to defining a woman during her menstruation and what she can or cannot do. Some consider them pure while others consider them impure. However, our society is keen on continuing the age-old traditions of restricting women from entering the kitchen and temple, avoiding the consumption of food touched by menstruating women, secluding women from rituals and festivals, banishing them to huts and sheds and countless other practices that are otherwise considered inhumane. It is sadder that people who impose and follow these practices are neither aware of Manusmriti’s and Ayurveda’s interpretations on menstruation nor do they question the essence of these practices. This makes me wonder whether they are continuing a legacy of culture or a legacy of sheer ignorance.
The government has immensely contributed to the problems of menstruating women. A 2016 report came with a finding that around 83% of women use alternative forms of hygiene other than pads and only 15% of women use sanitary pads in Nepal. I have personally come across women who used ashes, rags and dried leaves during their menstruation due to a lack of access to better sanitary products. Women who use clothes have no knowledge of cleaning them properly. These unhealthy practices expose women to deadly diseases such as reproductive tract infection, urinary tract infection, yeast infections, Hepatitis B infections and cervical cancer that can potentially result in death.
UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund) reports that 15–22% of girls are forced to miss classes on their period because they cannot afford the cost and accessibility of menstrual products. In a survey conducted by Wateraid in 2009 A.D, 38% of total respondents pointed to high cost as a reason to not use sanitary pads.
India removed a 12% tax on menstrual products back in 2018. Young girls and women of Rwanda who had to avoid school and work only because of their inability to afford sanitary products urged the government to remove the 18% VAT imposed on sanitary products in 2019. Scotland became the first country in the world to provide menstrual products for free, finally putting an end to period poverty.
Let’s take a moment to do some calculations and build a perspective here. Experts suggest women change pads every 4 hours. A packet of pads costs 50 to 500 rupees and contains 5–30 pieces of pads. On average, a woman needs at least 20 pieces of pads and even more if she has a heavy flow, for 4 days. If a packet costs 50 rupees and contains 5 pieces of pads, a woman would need to spend at least 200 rupees per cycle. Now, spending 200 rupees on one menstrual cycle may not sound expensive to some but is it the same for the 25.2% of households that are living under the poverty line? Would sanitary pads or other menstrual products be considered a priority to a menstruating woman coming from a family making a national minimum wage of 577 rupees per day? The above calculation presents the minimum amount a woman has to spend on basic menstrual products.
Now, the question is how fair is it to tax menstrual products when women have no control whatsoever over their bleeding? The luxury tax is exempted from gold but not from menstrual products. How hard is it for the government to acknowledge period poverty? Although the pandemic has worsened the situation where women struggle to find and pay for basic sanitary products, the government did not feel the need to remove the luxury tax in the budget of the fiscal year 2078/79. The government is not taxing menstrual products but rather is taxing menstruation. Why is my bleeding considered a ‘luxury’ to the government but ‘impurity’ to society?
A woman bleeds for at least three decades and women constitute 50.4% of Nepal’s population. But the majority population has been limited to statistics. I, as a woman, am compelled to write pieces and sign petitions as a cry to the government to not punish me for a natural phenomenon I have no control over. It is beyond time we let women bleed with dignity; It is time they have easy access to menstrual products.
Before you go, please sign this petition as an effort to remove the 13% tax imposed on menstrual products because we are not privileged enough to afford luxurious menstrual products. Your voice is even more vital now that a writ petition has been filed at Supreme Court to exempt VAT from menstrual products.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily represent the official opinion of Youth in Federal Discourse (YFD). YFD is only providing a platform for youths to express their opinions about federalism, government policies and laws of Nepal.
