Menstruation is not a choice, why tax it- Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana questions government.
Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, a non-governmental organization operating in the Upper East Region has joined many organizations across the country to demand the scrapping of taxes slapped on sanitary products. The organization does not find it prudent that menstrual hygiene which is a basic human right has been complicated by the imposition of taxes on sanitary products.
It is estimated that nearly 500 million people all over the world lack access to menstrual hygiene products and adequate facilities for menstrual health.
As part of activities to mark the menstrual hygiene day, the not-for-profit organization based in Bolgatanga on Friday, May 26, 2023, presented sanitary pads to school girls at the Akantome Junior High School in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Aside from the presentation of the pad, the organization educated both boys and girls on menstrual hygiene and the need for the boys to desist from teasing girls who, unfortunately, soil themselves.
In all, 133 girls received the pad with some left in the school for emergencies.
The organization, however, reiterated earlier calls for taxes on sanitary products to be scrapped to make pad affordable.
Speaking to Dreamz News, a Project Officer with Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, Abigail Adumolga, said the cost of sanitary pads has become a matter of concern. She insisted that the tax on sanitary products should be scrapped since proper hygiene care is a basic human requirement.
The price of sanitary pads has increased from between 5 and 7 cedis in 2021 to between 17 and 20 cedis and this according to her, is leading to some girls engaging in transactional sex with some who cannot afford to use clean clothes.
GIRLS OF AKANTOME JHS DISPLAYING PADS RECEIVED FROM YOUTH HARVEST FOUNDATION
Vice President of Harvest Youth Movement, Portia Nyaaba, described the price of sanitary pads due to the taxes as outrageous.
“There is a hike because it moved from 5 cedis in 2021 to 17 cedis and that’s outrageous. Sincerely, something should be done about the taxes. It is making sanitary pads very expensive for many girls out there.”