Very recently, Swami Krushnaswarup Dasji of Swaminarayan Bhuj Mandir in a very misogynistic statement labelled menstruating women “bitches” and has deterred people from eating food cooked by them. In light of this statement, India’s patriarchal mindset and an openly misogynistic attitude towards its women has come to the forefront. On one hand, wherein such news pieces are still making it to the headlines of some of the leading newspapers in India, Scotland is soon going to become the first country to provide sanitary pads and tampons free of cost at public places such as community centres, youth clubs and pharmacies, spending a total of 24.1 million pounds.
Can This Be India’s Reality?
In 2018, after months of campaigning, the tax on the sanitary pads in India was removed, which was set at 12% under the Goods and Services Act. It was argued that this would enable more girls to continue schools as periods become one of the primary reasons for girls to drop out of school. This was a welcoming step in a country like India where four out of five women do not have access to sanitary products, tax-free sanitary products will bring some relief in accessing these products.
Though affordability of perfumed sanitary pads is very important, this debate ironically seems to focus on a seemingly small urban population. Periods and the usage of feminine products in rural India are still seen as a taboo and is ingrained with a patriarchal mindset. The market penetration of the companies producing these products is evidential enough to demonstrate that the customer base for these companies is largely urban.
As per a report by Motilal Oswal, there is not enough competition nor penetration when it comes to the products of feminine hygiene. Proctor and Gamble’s product Whisper has a market share of 56% and Johnson and Johnson’s Stayfree and Carefree have a market share of 28%. The other companies like Cortex and Sofy lag far behind. More than the process of making the sanitary pads it is the customs duty levied on the raw materials of the pads such as absorbent polymer and wood pulp that increases the price of these products. This is increased by the establishment costs and general entry barriers for businesses that increase the costs of these products. Thus, with a small number of service providers and a high cost of production of sanitary pads what can be done to ensure that these products are more affordable and easily available?
Tax-Free vs Free Sanitary Napkins
After the 12% GST has been removed, a pack of 10 sanitary napkins that costs an average of 100 rupees, will cost around 88 rupees. This might be a woman’s monthly expenditure on her menstruation needs. However, considering 70% (Census, 2011) of India’s population live in rural areas and depend on manual labour, 75% of whom survives on 33 rupees per day, the amount of 88 rupees for a packet of sanitary napkins remain very high.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which provides employment of 100 days to one family in a year, provides a wage rate of 199 rupees. This payment, however, remains unpaid or families end up getting a wage rate of 100 rupees. The amount of a pack of sanitary napkins still remains somewhere around a poor person’s daily wage. What needs to be done then? Will it be okay to ask for an intervention on part of the government to provide subsidized pads to its population?
In 2010, the Union Ministry, after acknowledging the alarming state of menstrual hygiene in India, launched a 150-crore scheme to increase the access to Sanitary Napkins to adolescent girls in rural areas- providing a pack of six sanitary napkins for Re 1 to BPL families and Rs 5 for families falling under APL. Even though the policy is in place, a very small number of girls report receiving the sanitary pads from the Aanganwadi centres, their schools and the PHC.
In 2015, for the first time, The National Guidelines on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) were released under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Under the Menstrual Hygiene Management guidelines, the government is also looking at spreading awareness and removing the taboo around menstruation. Though the efforts on paper are commendable, the implementation of these schemes always remains a problem.
An Alternative
It is not just the most popular brands like Whisper and Stayfree that produce sanitary napkins but a large variety of lesser-known brands and people who have been devising ways to make cheaper pads and ensure better accessibility. Lesser-known companies like Aakar Innovations and the Muruganantham Jayshree Industries (Pad Man of India) have devised ways to reduce the production costs of these products and extend these products to Self Help Groups (SHGs). These SHGs enable women to buy their own pad making machine, establish a franchise and continue to produce affordable pads.
If the resource exists within the country, can the government make an attempt to promote these brands by providing them with relevant outlets? Moreover, these products should be made available at public places both in rural and urban areas so as to increase their visibility. Only when these items will be openly available at public places that the conversations will begin to gather some steam in rural and urban centres.
In a study published by the National Journal for Community Medicine, it was found that affordability of sanitary pads is still a secondary problem. The study was conducted in 11 villages of Pune, where 43.2% of girls reported missing schools during their periods the prime reasons for which remains, non-availability of toilets, dirty and waterless toilets.
Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the government has claimed to construct 9.5 crore toilets in the country, the majority of which remains in rural India, their usage and availability of water still remain a major problem. In addition to this, the criticism and the futility of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been widely written about. On the outset, the government has seemed to work on the prime cause of the problem- non-availability of toilets and aim to work towards removing the taboos around menstruation through its MHM guidelines. Though a lot can be written about the poor implementation of these schemes, they still exist on the paper.
A step towards providing sanitary napkins at public places free of cost will do nothing but strengthen these government measures. It will take away the burden of responsibility from the young menstruating girls and women. Even now, the responsibility of asking for pads from school authorities and Aanganwadi centres bear the burden of shame and embarrassment on these women.
The decision-making power of financial matters that still remain in the hands of men in most families (both rural and urban), further deters women to ask for money to buy these pads (even though subsidized). Government-supported production of sanitary napkins will motivate more local partners to come into the female hygiene market. The increased competition will bring down the prices of these products, in the long run, making it easier for the government to provide free/highly subsidized sanitary napkins to its people.