By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Minority female Members of Ghana’s Parliament joined by leadership of the University of Ghana Accra City Campus Women’s Commission, students from second circle institutions and market women have asked the government not to tax their monthly “blood flows”.
The group is calling on the government to as a matter of urgency scrap taxes on sanitary pads and other sanitary products.
The group, led by the second Minority Whip, and Member of Parliament for Ada Constituency in the Greater Accra region, Madam Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe, have given a one-month ultimatum to government to reverse the imposition of import duties and Valued Added Tax (VAT) on imported and locaaly manufactured sanitary pads in the country.
It also called on the government to guarantee free distribution of free sanitary pads to low-income communities to help alleviate the financial burden and empower women and girls in marginalized areas in the country.
According to the group, sanitary pads are not a luxury but a fundamental necessity for the health and well-being of women and the adolescent girls hence a basic human right which must be easily affordable and devoid of any financial barriers.
Addressing a joint press conference in Parliament House on Thursday, November 29, 2023, Madam Doyoe Cudjoe stated that the imposition of financial barriers through taxes on sanitary pads has created undue burden especially for adolescent girls to access the necessity for their menstrual hygiene.
The group asserted that financial barriers to menstrual hygiene products negatively affect the lives of girls especially those from low-income households thereby impeding their education.
Ms Doyoe Cudjoe said the lack of access to sanitary pads opens up the girls to “risky behaviours such as transactional sex leading to teenage pregnancies” which must be confronted by all.
She wondered why there is zero tax on the importation of condom which is used for pleasure and considered as an essential medicine but sanitary pads which is used to make womanhood complete as a result of biological factor, menstruation would attract such taxes?
The Ada lawmaker also indicated that the removal of the taxes on the importation of sanitary pads will provide incentives for NGOs to bring in more sanitary pads and distribute for free on behalf of government to needy communities.
The MP cited countries such as Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Nicaragua among others who are either implementing zero tax on sanitary pad importation or free sanitary pad distribution policy.
On his part, the Women’s Commissioner, of the Accra City Campus of the University of Ghana, Ms. Queenster Anno Quaicoe said government should make provisions for girls and women to use their Ghana Cards to procure sanitary pads for free at the pharmacies across the country.