Tampon Tax: Challenges of Women's Rights
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Abstract
Having period should interfere with every woman and girl life during the typical 28-day menstrual cycle. Access to menstrual hygiene products, private space to change, decent toilets, clean water, sanitary bin in which to use them, and the right to manage their menstrual health without shame or stigma, is necessary for every woman and girl who menstruates. However, the menstrual product tax (also called tampon tax) exacerbates the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products due to financial constraints and negatively impact on a girl or woman's ability to access menstrual hygiene products to menstrual health. This paper investigates the consequences of an unusual policy aimed at reducing the burden of these subsidies by abolishing the tampon tax. This paper also provides details on the tampon tax policy, reaction to it and evidence of its impact, particularly in examples of domestic jurisdictions where have abolished or reduced sales taxes for menstrual hygiene products. These examples referred in this paper seek to illustrate the possible effect of the abolition of tampon tax.
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