PROMOTING GIRLS EDUCATION: NEED TO DROP TAX ON SANITARY PADS IN NIGERIA

Africa/Nigeria/24.07.18/Source: nigerianobservernews.com.

Among the list of goods that are prohibited from being exported to the country or are otherwise restricted in 2017 are Sanitary Wares of Plastics and Domestic Articles and Wares of Plastics (but excluding Baby Feeding bottles) and flushing cistern and waterless toilets. A way the government can help improve menstrual hygiene is by removing sales tax on feminine hygiene products and regularly distributing free menstrual pads in schools

There is need for Nigerian government to scrap the tax on the sanitary napkins. The move will help more girls to go to school during their periods and also boost their job prospects. It will help schools and government to regularly include menstrual hygiene education in any health programme organised in communities or the larger society as a whole, It will promote girl- child education in Nigeria. It will boost girl- child education in the rural areas in the current economic development process of Nigeria. It will help Nigeria to realise its greatness globally, she must make strong impact by boosting girl- child education in our rural areas. He further said when we harness the potentials of our girl – child education in Nigeria; we will reduce poverty, provide jobs and create wealth as well as create opportunities for future entrepreneurs.

Scrapping of sanity pads tax will help girl-child in proper menstrual education and hygiene that is essential to boost the confidence of female child in contributing positively to the society. The scrapping of sanitary pads will help in tackling biggest barriers of education for girls. We all know that girls in many schools are forced to stay back home during their periods as there are lack of toilets and sanitization facility which creates a big problem to them during these painful days. Periods are one of the leading factors of our country where every girl has to go through pain for five days of every month. However, due to lack of money and high prices of sanitary pads, four out of five women avoid using sanitary napkins. Sanitary pads were taxed at 12 percent under Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was launched in 2017
The scrap of tax on sanitary pads will help more girls to go to school during their periods and boost their job prospects.

Removing the tax on pads will tackle one of the biggest barriers to education for girls, who are often forced to stay at home due to a lack of access to clean hygiene products, while also facing stigma and a lack of toilets in schools.
Periods are among the leading factors for girls to drop out of school in a country where four out of five women and girls are estimated by campaigners to have no access to sanitary pads. I am sure all mothers and sisters will be very happy to hear that sanitary pads are now 100 percent exempt from tax,
Sanitary pads were taxed at more yhan 5 percent under Nigeria’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was launched in 2017.
Nigerian girls and women face many challenges when they have their periods, especially in rural areas where a lack of awareness and the cost of pads mean many instead use unsanitary cloth or rags, increasing the risk of infections and disease.
The tax exemption will be a massive boost for girls education in Nigeria.
More than a third of girls in Africa miss school during their periods, as they lack access to toilets or pads, and many receive no education about menstruation before reaching puberty, according to a recent report by charity WaterAid and UNICEF.

Simply having access to sustainable sanitary pads, the school attendance of many adolescent girls in some rural primary schools of Nigeria is improving.
It is now reasonable for me to say that the distribution of sustainable sanitary pads will make a substantial contribution to the support for girl to stay in school. At first, many girls abscond classes when menstruating, fearing the unknown.
In this article I want to promote and advocate for socioeconomic and emotional wellbeing of adolescent girls and young women by influencing positive social change and build girls leadership to improve their quality of lives. Nigerian government must produce the sustainable sanitary pads which are freely distributed to vulnerable girls. The pads are coupled with menstrual hygiene management which are both helping to keep adolescent girls in school.
The sustainable sanitary pads are made of cotton layers with a water proof layer at the bottom in order to guarantee reasonable absorbing capacity. A package contains 4 pads and a panty with small hooks to keep the pads in place. These are packaged in an attractive small bag. And the washing is straight forward: rinse in cold water, wash with soap in lukewarm water, rinse again and hang to dry. There is one other reason for the introduction of sustainable sanitary pads which is an environmentally one: Non-sustainable sanitary pads represent a waste problem, they cannot be recycled and they are poisonous towards the environment because of the plastic component.

In northern Nigeria majority of Adolescent girls do not go to school when menstruating due to reasons ranging from culture to lack of sanitary facilities and menstrual hygiene management. This eventually leads to a sharp increase in dropout rates among girls after 4, 5 and 6 years of primary education.
There are many reasons for the increased cases of Adolescent girls’ absenteeism and dropping out of school but one is that girls tend to stay at home when menstruating, missing 4 or five days out of every school month.
According, to a 2012 Water Aid report entitled “School menstrual hygiene management in Africa: More than toilets”, lack of separate and adequate sanitation and washing facilities in schools also discourages girls from attending school, particularly during menstruation, affecting their school performance and increasing their risk of dropping out.

Menstrual hygiene issues were accountable for 12 to 36 days of absence annually per girl. When their cloths leaked at school, most girls left class to change, and then returned to lessons. However, 11% went home and stayed home and 7% said they didn’t come to school at all on heavy days, according to Save the Children.
To promote girls’ education, after puberty, however, it takes more than exercise books and toilets. They also need materials like sustainable sanitary pads and critical information on how to cope with menstruation.
In Nigeria, the introduction of free primary education in 2004 with the introduction of universal basic education has seen a large increase in the number of pupils going to school but this increase in access has also brought about major infrastructure problems and a big decline in quality. This mostly impinges on poor adolescent girls.
For most girls in rural areas, menstruation is connected with a number of mistaken beliefs, which brings about negative results on their lives and education. The reason why a girl-child stops going to school during menstruation is the pre-conceived myths and misconception about this natural event.
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Source of the notice: https://nigerianobservernews.com/2018/07/promoting-girls-education-need-to-drop-tax-on-sanitary-pads-in-nigeria/