Sonia expresses support for making sanitary napkins tax-free

New Delhi, April 3 (IANS) Congress President Sonia Gandhi has expressed support to a petition initiated by party MP Sushmita Dev urging the government to make sanitary napkins tax-free, party sources said on Monday.

They said in a letter to Dev expressing her whole-hearted support to the cause, Gandhi noted that during the UPA rule, she had requested then Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to provide sanitary napkins free of cost to the poor.

Dev had in February written to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley requesting the tax on sanitary pads to be done away with.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, observed on March 8, she also started a petition on the online platform change.org to seek public support for the cause.

As many as 2,04,518 people from across the country have come in support of the petition started on the website, according to a release issued by change.org on Saturday.