A few days ago, I was in the car with my mother listening to the radio when I heard on BBC news that there was a march going on in Ghana. This march was organized by the women’s wing of the Socialist’s movement in Ghana, under the title of “Don’t tax my period”.

Right now Ghana is going through an economic crisis due to the inflation of “Finished Good”  products, including menstrual hygiene products. These products have  20% import tax and then an additional 12.5-15% Value Added Tax. Ironically “Essential Social Good” products have no tax. And unfortunately, menstrual hygiene products do not classify as an Essential Social Good Product and thus, many women who are menstruating are not able to have access to menstrual hygiene products and are having this protest to express the injustice.

In my opinion this is not right. First of all, how can menstrual hygiene products be classified as a “Finished Good” product rather than an “Essential Social Good”? They should be classified as an “Essential Social Good”.  50% of the world’s population undergoes menstruation at some point of their life, and Ghana is no exception. Therefore my question is why should these products be taxed? While I understand that the country is undergoing an economic crisis, the country’s economy should not depend on taxation of such products. If anything this might lower the country’s economy even more. Because without access to sanitary products, girls may not be able to go to school and thus fall behind in education and even drop out. This is a common trend witnessed in a lot of developing countries including others in Africa  (besides Ghana) and Southeast Asia. Thus, from a government’s perspective wouldn’t the logical thing to do be to remove the tax on period products so that women and girls can continue their education and later contribute to the workforce and help the economy? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Not to mention, without access to feminine hygiene products, wouldn’t the risk of infections and illnesses increase? We all know that it’s not sanitary to not treat a wound that bleeds because it can lead to an infection later on. Well isn’t a period the same thing? Isn’t the purpose of these sanitary products to stop the flow of blood? Without access to clean sanitary products, these women and girls may resort to using rags, paper towels, which is not hygienic. Therefore, the country should make these products accessible instead of charging an additional tax on these products.

Additionally, this “period tax” in Ghana can be equated to the “Pink Tax” seen worldwide. The Pink tax is an unofficial tax on products used by women which is higher than seen by products for their male counterparts. The fact that the country has decided to tax a necessity for life boggles my mind because of the implications about a country’s future. Thus, this makes me realize once again the sad truth that despite the fact that we are in the 21st century and women’s rights have progressed, there is still a long way to go providing and protecting our girls and women.

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