SFI protests GST on sanitary pkins

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, July 13: The Assam state committee of Student’s Federation of India (SFI) on Thursday staged protest demanding immediate removal of 12 percent GST imposed on sanitary pads.

The SFI activists with a slogan ‘Bleed without fear, bleed without tax’ also kicked off an awareness campaign across the State on July 11.

Opting for an even more off-the-beaten path experience, the members of the SFI penned slew of their demands on sanitary pkins which will be parceled to Union Minister of Fince Arun Jaitley.  The demands include urgent removal of 12 percent GST on sanitary pkins, to take initiative for sanitation, to install sanitary vending machine at schools across the state as well as to provide six packets of sanitary pkins at Rs 1 to every girl child living below poverty line.   

“Sanitary pads are an integral commodity for women during the menstruation period. Its use is essential to maintain hygiene for a healthy life and to keep diseases such as reproductive tract infection and cervical cancer at bay. So, to levy 12 percent GST on this essential commodity is baseless,” said joint general secretary SFI’s Assam state committee, Sangita Das.  According to a published report on a Social Science intertiol Research Jourl around 12 percent women used sanitary pads, whereas 88 percent women resort to other unhygienic means.  Das further added, “We want that this essential commodity becomes affordable for all sections of women.”