Access to sanitary products should be any woman's right. Therefore in our country and others across the world women ask that sanitary products like pads and tampons be tax-free so that women from weaker economic sections can also afford them.?
Setting an example for the entire world Scotland is set to become the first nation to make sanitary items like pads and tampons free for women.?
This is an exemplary move that will?declassify period products from the class of luxury items.?
According to a Reuters report, on February 25, the Scottish Parliament approved a plan to make menstrual products available free in public spaces such as community centers, pharmacies and youth clubs.?
As a matter of national police, Scotland has been offering pads and tampons free of charge at schools and universities since 2018.
The new plan will cost Edinburgh an estimated $31.2 million (Rs 222 crore, approx) a year.?The legislation was passed with an initial vote of 112 in favour, none against and one abstention, according to the report. It is now headed to a second phase during which legislators can propose amendments.
The legislation is a ¡°milestone moment for normalising menstruation in Scotland and sending out that real signal to people in this country about how seriously parliament takes gender equality,¡± ABC quoted the bill¡¯s sponsor, Monica Lennon as saying.?
She further said, ¡°We are changing the culture and it¡¯s really exciting that other countries right around the world are watching very closely to see what we do.¡±
Many activists and lawmakers in various countries across the world have criticised policies that ask women to pay high taxes for basic necessities. Getting?periods is not an option, and hygiene should be given utmost priority and Scotland¡¯s move to end ¡®period poverty¡¯ should be an inspiration for other countries as well.?
A study in Scotland found that before these products were made free one in four women in schools and universities had trouble accessing menstrual products.?
In 2016, even the United Kingdom pledged to end its 5 per cent ¡®tampon tax,¡¯ but it has put off the change. Uncertainty over Brexit and the impediment of European Union tax regulations have been cited.?
Scotland, however, went ahead and not only removed the taxes but made the sanitary products free. Such amendments should definitely be brought in India where millions of women belonging to the lower middle class and coming from a poor background cannot afford sanitary products which is a basic necessity.?