印度取消卫生巾税

Sanitary pads are now tax-free in India.

The Indian government has decided to scrap a controversial 12 percent tax on the female hygiene products, it announced last week, marking a victory for campaigners who have lobbied against the tax for more than a year.

“[The country’s] sisters and mothers will be happy to hear that sanitary pads have been given a 100 percent exemption and brought down to a tax rate of zero,” the country’s acting finance minister Piyush Goyal told reporters. “Now there will be no tax on sanitary pads.”

Periods are among the leading factors for girls to drop out of school in India, where four out of five women and girls are estimated by campaigners to have no access to sanitary pads.

Last year, lawmaker Sushmita Dev launched a petition to demand a reduction or total removal of taxes on pads, citing that about 70 percent of women in India could not afford them.

The online petition gained more than 400,000 signatures.

Dev thanked all her supporters in a tweet Saturday, and also criticized the government for taking more than a year to remove the tax on sanitary pads.

Bollywood’s first film on menstrual hygiene “Padman,” starring Akshay Kumar, one of Hindi cinema’s most popular action heroes, triggered debate over the taboo subject of menstrual hygiene in India after its release earlier this year.

Kumar is at the forefront of a campaign by Niine Movement, an initiative promoting menstrual hygiene, to help increase the number of women using pads.

According to India’s National Family Health Survey, more than 40 percent of Indian women aged 15 to 24 do not have access to sanitary products during their period. The figure was as high as 80 percent for some of India’s poorer central and eastern states.

India now joins Ireland, Kenya and Canada as one of the few countries where sanitary products are tax-free.

Protests are continuing to demand similar laws in other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【游说】yóushuì

lobby urge or procure the passage of (a bill)

【禁忌】jìnjì

taboo proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable 卫生巾在印度免税了。

印度政府上周宣布，废除对女性卫生产品征收的12％税收，这一税收之前就备受争议。这标志着反对这项税收的活动人士一年多来的游说取得了胜利。

印度代理财政部长皮尤什•戈亚尔告诉记者说：“所有女性听到卫生巾现在100%免税，税率为零的消息都会非常开心。以后卫生巾都不再收税了。”

活动人士称，取消卫生巾税解决了女孩接受教育的一个最大障碍。由于缺少卫生用品，再加上学校缺少卫生间，不少女生经期都羞于出门，无法上学。

经期不方便成为印度女孩辍学的主要因素之一。印度一些女性权益保护团体估算，印度全国大约80%的女性经期没有卫生巾可用。

去年，议员苏什米塔•德夫发起请愿，呼吁政府减免卫生巾税，称印度有70%的女性买不起卫生巾。

网上请愿征得超过40万个签名。

倡导者德夫在周六的一条推文中感谢所有支持者，并批评政府花了一年多的时间才取消了这一税收。

今年年初，宝莱坞首部以经期卫生为主题的电影《护垫侠》上映。影片男主角阿克谢•库玛尔是印度最受欢迎的动作明星。这部电影引发了人们对印度女性经期卫生的热议，在印度社会这个话题一直都是禁忌。

阿克谢•库玛尔是Niine运动的领军人士，这个团体宣传经期卫生，倡导更多女性使用卫生巾。

根据印度的全国家庭健康调查，15至24岁的印度女性中40%以上的人群在经期无法获得卫生用品。而在印度贫困的中部和东部一些邦，这一比例高达80%。

印度现在和爱尔兰、肯尼亚和加拿大一样，成为少数几个卫生产品免税的国家。

美国、英国和澳大利亚等国的抗议活动仍在继续，要求政府实行类似法律。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)