First need: Should we pay for tampons and pads
Natasha Fedorenko
Menstruation averages six years. in the life of a woman, and each of these days is accompanied by spending on pads, tampons, and sometimes pain pills. And this is not to mention the fact that many of us buy oral contraceptives every month, throw out lingerie on which there are drops of blood, or acquire additional funds from acne. According to the calculations of The Huffington Post, only one tampons cost an average American almost two thousand dollars for a lifetime.
The Zana Africa Foundation supplies tampons and pads to Kenya, where a million girls miss an average of six weeks of study each year due to menstruation.
Most countries do not recognize tampons and pads as essential goods (left-wing activists insist that the reason is that men do not need it), so they are subject to value-added tax or sales tax, and this measure is considered by the opponents to be sexist. For example, in Slovakia the tax is 20%, in Italy - 21%, in Germany - 19%. It is curious that in Russia the tax is 10% (with the standard VAT rate of 18%). In recent years, feminists in Germany, Great Britain, Australia and India have acted against the tax, but so far without success.
In America, the tampon tax was abolished in seven states: New York, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The European Union only recently allowed member countries to independently set a tax on feminine hygiene items - earlier the rate could be from 17% to 25%. In France, the tax on gaskets fell from 20% to 5.5%. The question of the abolition of additional payments in Australia, Germany and India is still being decided, and to this list it is worth adding countries in which this topic was not discussed at all.
But lower prices will only partially help women facing problems due to access to hygiene products, advocates of women's rights remind. Among them, and possible health problems due to late change of tampons (they should be updated every 3-4 hours), and stigmatization due to soiled clothes, and even the inability to go to school or to work during menstruation. All this happens due to the lack of free pads, tampons and menstrual cups in public places.
Of course, residents of countries with high poverty rates are facing the greatest problems. Thus, various charitable organizations seek to provide women with free hygiene products. For example, the Zana Africa Foundation supplies tampons and pads to Kenya, where 1 million girls miss an average of six weeks of study each year due to menstruation, and the Feminine Health Management program provides schoolgirls with menstrual cups in East Africa. Even some commercial companies report that by buying their pads or menstrual cups, women help less wealthy people feel comfortable during their periods.
We never think about grabbing a roll of toilet paper, going to work, but when it comes to menstruation, forgotten houses become a real problem.
According to UNESCO estimates, 10% of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa miss school during menstruation, and in Nepal this figure reaches 41%. In Bangladesh, 73% of factory employees do not work during menstruation, and about 70% of deaths in India associated with diseases of the female reproductive system occur due to poor hygiene during menstruation. The same problems, but on a smaller scale, prosperous Western countries also encounter, for example, schoolgirls in the British regions with high poverty rates.
Activists are working to provide free means of hygiene to schoolgirls and women with low incomes, cooperating with schools and public organizations. In Scotland, the problem is solved at the state level: a pilot program was launched here to provide low-income women with tampons and pads. “In the ghetto, we found women who were forced to wear tampons for too long or use cloths, newspapers, socks or toilet paper instead of hygiene,” says Monica Lennon, a Labor member.
We never think about grabbing a roll of toilet paper from home, going to work or a date: there is almost certainly paper in the public toilet. But when it comes to menstruation, forgotten home gaskets become a real problem. Supporters of free hygiene products for women remind that the natural needs of half of the world's population are not taken into account in public places. Rare toilets are equipped with automatic machines, even with paid feminine hygiene products, while free tampons and pads are rare. In Britain and other Western countries, signatures are being actively collected for access to free feminine hygiene products in public places.
Tampons and pads should be taken as toilet paper, according to Nancy Kramer, the organizer of the Free Tampons campaign in Ohio. According to her calculations, providing one woman with free hygiene products in public places will cost only five dollars a year. "If men had periods, this issue would not even be discussed," - said Kramer. New York has already taken this path. There, from last year, money for tampons in public places began to be allocated in the same way as for toilet paper. Thus, feminine hygiene products have appeared in schools, prisons, homeless shelters and other places.
Menstruation is not an exotic disease, but a natural process that almost every woman of reproductive age encounters every month, so free use of pads in public places is not a whim, but the right for everyone is considered left-handed. The right ones parry: there are a lot of important things for which you can spend their taxes, and gaskets are certainly a useful thing, but not the only one in this series. The problem may well be solved by activist fundraising, besides women are not forbidden to enter the pharmacy. At the same time, low income and the inability to get hygienic means in time should not cause inconvenience to women, make them skip school or work days, and tampons are necessary just like soap or paper towels, advocates of women's rights remind. And they call for humanism: the sooner the pads appear in each toilet, the sooner the demonization of menstruation will disappear.
Photo: Elena Kharichkina - stock.adobe.com, Vodoleyka - stock.adobe.com