52% of Sri Lanka’s population is female, with approximately 5.7 million menstruating women. However, for many Sri Lankan women, access to safe and affordable menstrual hygiene products has become a luxury. In light of the continued unaffordability of menstrual hygiene products for women in Sri Lanka, the Advocata Institute proposes a few policy recommendations.
READ COMPLETE POLICY BRIEF
Originally published in Colombo Telegraph, Pulse, Economy Next, The Island, Daily FT, Ceylon Today, Kolomthota
By Nishtha Chadha
One of the most talked-about election promises this week has been Sajith Premadasa’s promise to distribute free sanitary hygiene products. Labelling himself as a #padman, Premadasa tweeted that “until sustainable cost-effective alternatives are found” he promises to provide sanitary hygiene products free of charge.
Indeed, access to menstrual hygiene products is a serious problem in Sri Lanka and has become a popular issue across political parties. In March this year, SLPP’s Namal Rajapaksa also tweeted about the issue, asking “What rationale could a Gov have to tax half it’s populace on a dire necessity? Is the Gov aware of studies on poor hygiene practices & cervical cancer?”
Taxing menstrual hygiene
Although 52% of Sri Lanka’s population is female, with approximately 4.2 million menstruating women, access to safe and affordable menstrual hygiene products remains somewhat of a luxury for many Sri Lankan women. A leading contributor to the unaffordability of menstrual hygiene products in Sri Lanka is the taxes levied on imported menstrual hygiene products. Sanitary napkins and tampons are taxed under the HS code HS 96190010 and the import tariff levied on these products is 62.6%. Until September 2018, the tax on sanitary napkins was 101.2%.
The components of this structure were Gen Duty (30%) + VAT (15%) + PAL (7.5%) + NBT (2%) and CESS (30% or Rs.300/kg). In September 2018, following social media outrage against the exorbitant tax, the CESS component of this tax was repealed by the Minister of Finance. Yet, despite the removal of the CESS levy, sanitary napkins and tampons continue to remain unaffordable and out of reach for the vast majority of Sri Lankan women.
Figure 1: Breakdown of taxation structure (before September 2018)
General Duty VAT PAL NBT CESS Total 30% 15% 7.5% 2% 30% 101.2% The average woman has her period for around 5 days and will use 4 pads a day. Under the previous taxation scheme, this would cost a woman LKR 520 a month. The estimated average monthly household income of the households in the poorest 20% in Sri Lanka is LKR 14,843. To these households, the monthly cost of menstrual hygiene products would therefore make up 3.5% of their expenses. In comparison, the percentage of expenditure for this income category on clothing is around 4.4%.
Internationally, repeals on menstrual hygiene product taxation are becoming increasingly common due to their proliferation of gender inequality and the resulting unaffordability of essential care items, commonly known as ‘period poverty’. Kenya was the first country to abolish sales tax for menstrual products in 2004 and countries including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland and Malaysia have all followed suit in recent years.
The impact of unaffordability
The current cost of menstrual hygiene products in Sri Lanka has direct implications on girls’ education, health and employment.
Source: Menstrual Hygiene Management In Schools In South Asia, Wash Matters, 2018.
According to a 2015 analysis of 720 adolescent girls and 282 female teachers in Kalutara district, 60% of parents refuse to send their girls to school during periods of menstruation. Moreover, in a survey of adolescent Sri Lankan girls, slightly more than a third claimed to miss school because of menstruation. When asked to explain why, 68% to 81% cited pain and physical discomfort and 23% to 40% cited fear of staining clothes.
Inaccessibility of menstrual hygiene products also results in the use of makeshift, unhygienic replacements, which have direct implications on menstrual hygiene management (MHM). Poor MHM can result in serious reproductive tract infections. A study on cervical cancer risk factors in India has found a direct link between the use of cloth during menstruation (a common substitute for sanitary napkins) and the development of cervical cancer; the second-most common type of cancer among Sri Lankan women today.
The unaffordability of menstrual hygiene products is also proven to have direct consequences on women’s participation in the labor force. A study on apparel sector workers in Bangladesh found that providing subsidized menstrual hygiene products resulted in a drop in absenteeism of female workers and an increase in overall productivity.
Towards a sustainable solution
If the Government is serious about finding sustainable solutions to the issues associated with unaffordability of menstrual hygiene products in Sri Lanka and promoting gender equality, it should be looking to slash the heavy import taxes currently levied on these products. Current taxation rates are keeping prices high and out of reach for a majority of Sri Lankan women. By reducing these rates, the cost of importing sanitary napkins and tampons will simultaneously decrease and stimulate competition in the industry, further driving prices down and encouraging innovation.
The conventional argument in favour of import tariffs is the protection of the local industry. However, in Sri Lanka, sanitary napkin exports only contribute a mere Rs. 25.16 million, or 0.001%, to total exports. Increased market competition would also incentivise local manufacturers to innovate better quality products and ensure their prices remain competitive for consumers.
Other common concerns pertaining to the issue of low-quality products potentially flooding the Sri Lankan market if taxation is reduced are unlikely to materialise since quality standards are already imposed by the Sri Lankan government on imported products under SLS 111.
In addition, making these products more affordable would align with Sri Lanka’s commitment to Article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which promotes the right of all individuals to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. By keeping prices high, present taxation methods are contributing systematic obstruction of many women’s right to equal opportunity to enjoy the highest attainable level of health, and thereby do not meet the ratified standards of the ICESCR.
If menstrual hygiene products are made more affordable, it is likely that more Sri Lankan women will be able to uptake their use. Sri Lanka should thus remove the remaining import levies on menstrual hygiene products as soon as possible, via the means of an extraordinary gazette. Removing the PAL and General Duty components alone would bring taxation levels down by 43.9% to a total of 18.7%. This would remove a significant barrier to girls education, women’s health and labour force participation, and create a wide-scale positive impact on closing Sri Lanka’s present gender gap and facilitating more inclusive economic growth. There has been a lot of rhetoric around keeping women safe and making them a priority this election – so what better place to start than this?
Originally appeared on Daily FT, Ceylon Today, The Island and Daily Mirror
By Anuki Premachandra
Today (28) is Menstrual Hygiene Day. Most of you might not be aware of it because in Sri Lanka, we pretend that women don’t bleed.
Poor menstrual hygiene is caused by a lack of education on the issue, persisting taboos and stigma, limited access to hygienic menstrual products and poor sanitation infrastructure that undermines the educational opportunities, health and overall social status of women and girls around the world. As a result, millions of women and girls are kept from reaching their full potential.
In Sri Lanka, we treat access to menstrual products as both a luxury and a black market good. Steeped in social stigma, the negative characterization of these necessities have overwhelmingly resulted in a growing prevalence of ‘Period Poverty’.
Period Poverty isn’t just another term
Period Poverty refers to having a lack of access to sanitary products due to financial constraints. This problem is quite serious in the case of Sri Lanka. Commercially produced sanitary towels typically sell between Rs. 120-175. Imported brands can go up to Rs. 350, putting them out of reach for most women, thereby making it a luxury for some.
The heavy tax on sanitary napkins is a key contributor to these disproportionately high prices.
In September 2018, the Minister of Finance reduced the tax on sanitary napkins to 62% from 102%, following the removal of the CESS tax. The Minister for Finance Mangala Samaraweera recently mentioned in a Reuters article that he was looking at ways to reduce the tax further as he recognises the effect of period poverty on girl’s school attendance and the participation of women in the economy.
The average woman has her period for 2,535 days of her life. That’s nearly seven years of depending on unhygienic cloth rags and makeshift solutions if sanitary napkins are beyond your financial reach.
This is a classic characteristic of a luxury good. Expensive watches or perfumes are only within the purchasing power of some, because only they are rich enough to afford it.
Unfortunately sanitary napkins have fallen to the same misfortune. Is it justifiable that something so essential as a pad is something that only those with financial capacity can afford?
This year’s tagline is ‘Menstruation Matters’ and could not be more relevant to Sri Lanka. A few weeks ago, a Sunday newspaper ran an article on urbanisation that expressed views on how the ‘modern’ woman buys sanitary napkins in this country – indeed, a round peg in a square hole. Nonetheless, it is interesting to analyse the thinking behind this narrative.
The writer explains how women in modern society now purchase their sanitary napkins in broad daylight over supermarket counters, instead of the sanitary napkins being sold wrapped in newspaper or brown bags in efforts to hide the identity of the product. There is clear disapproval of purchasing sanitary napkins out in open!
Unfortunately, the ideal transaction etiquette the writer holds dear is more common in Sri Lanka than we’d like to accept. A few weeks ago, when I purchased a packet of sanitary napkins in Kandy, the grocery uncle went to great lengths to wrap my purchase up in newspaper, because god forbid if someone finds out I’m on my period, right? Some blame culture, some blame our values – but the result of this stigma is the imminence of ‘Period Poverty,’ which 10.5 million women in our country are burdened with.
How does stigmatising our periods aggravate Period Poverty?
This little charade of hiding your pads and the norms which reinforce this act makes it almost seem like you’re buying a boxful of heroin, and not pads.
Treating a product this essential like you would a good sold in the black market means that the social stigma around periods extends to the purchase of sanitary napkins.
The stigma is so strong that stores don’t sell the product without masking its identity, women don’t openly discuss the purchase of this product, leading us to accept the product as it is, without questioning its price or quality merely due to the lack of open conversation. We’re made to accept whatever that is sold to us – at a higher price and with little variety.
The local sanitary napkin market is dominated in Sri Lanka by a few brands. The protection of these brands is also why there is such a huge tax on the imports. When compared to supermarket aisles in India, Sri Lankan aisles carry very limited variances of the product.
The demand for specific types of sanitary napkins differ from woman to woman – our physiologies are different. We barely see pads that are for example, organic cotton, washable and reusable, etc. in our aisles because when we treat pads as a black market product, we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we’ve just got to accept whatever that is available in our reach!
No, your pads are not a packet of drugs whose identity needs to be masked and sealed. No, it is not fair that pads are made expensive (through taxes and very minimal competition) to the point that only a selected few can afford them.
This Menstrual Hygiene Day, I urge you to start having open conversations about issues of this nature. We need to change this narrative. Pads should not be a luxury. Period.
View this article in Sinhala here.