印度政府21日宣布对卫生巾不再征收12%的消费税。一些女性权益保护团体估算，印度有大约80%的女性无力负担或者难以购得卫生用品。免税举措将帮助更多女性安然度过每个月的特殊日子，走进学校和职场。

Sanitary¹ pads are now tax-free in India.

卫生巾在印度免税了。

The Indian government has decided² to scrap³ a controversial 12% tax on the feminine hygiene⁴ products, it announced late Saturday, marking a victory for campaigners who have lobbied against the tax for more than a year.

印度政府周六晚间宣布，废除对女性卫生产品征收的12％税收，这一税收之前就备受争议。这标志着反对这项税收的活动人士一年多来的游说取得了胜利。

"[The country's] sisters and mothers will be happy to hear that sanitary pads have been given a 100% exemption⁵ and brought down to a tax rate of zero," the country's acting⁶ finance minister Piyush Goyal told reporters. "Now there will be no [tax] on sanitary pads."

印度代理财政部长皮尤什-戈亚尔告诉记者说：“所有女性听到卫生巾现在100%免税，税率为零的消息都会非常开心。以后卫生巾都不再收税了。”

Activists⁷ say removing the tax on pads tackles 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 stigma⁸ and a lack of toilets in schools.

活动人士称，取消卫生巾税解决了女孩接受教育的一个最大障碍。由于缺少卫生用品，再加上学校缺少卫生间，不少女生经期都羞于出门，无法上学。

Periods are among the leading factors for girls to drop out of school in India, where four out of five women and girls are estimated by campaigners to have no access to sanitary pads.

经期不方便成为印度女孩辍学的主要因素之一。印度一些女性权益保护团体估算，印度全国大约80%的女性经期没有卫生巾可用。

Last year, lawmaker Sushmita Dev launched a petition to demand a reduction or total removal of taxes on pads, citing that about 70 percent of women in India could not afford them.

去年，议员苏什米塔-德夫发起请愿，呼吁政府减免卫生巾税，称印度有70%的女性买不起卫生巾。

The online petition gained more than 400,000 signatures.

这次网上请愿征得超过40万个签名。

Dev thanked all her supporters in a tweet on Saturday, and also criticized the government for taking more than a year to remove the tax on sanitary pads.

倡导者德夫在周六的一条推文中感谢所有支持者，并批评政府花了一年多的时间才取消了这一税收。

很多人将取消卫生巾税与印度电影《护垫侠》联系在了一起。

Bollywood’s first film on menstrual hygiene ‘Padman’, starring Akshay Kumar – one of Hindi cinema’s most popular action heroes – triggered debate over the taboo⁹ subject of menstrual hygiene in India after its release earlier this year.

今年年初，宝莱坞首部以经期卫生为主题的电影《护垫侠》上映。影片男主角阿克谢-库玛尔是印度最受欢迎的动作明星。这部电影引发了人们对印度女性经期卫生的热议，在印度社会这个话题一直都是禁忌。

Kumar is at the forefront of a campaign by Niine Movement, an initiative promoting menstrual hygiene, to help increase the number of women using pads.

影片男主角阿克谢-库玛尔是Niine运动的领军人士，这个团体宣传经期卫生，倡导更多女性使用卫生巾。

电影《护垫侠》根据真实人物传记改编，原型是一位印度的企业家，他发明了低成本的卫生巾生产机，为印度农村的经期卫生观念带来一场大变革。

电影在印度上映期间，低成本卫生巾生产机的创始人印度企业家Arunachalam Muruganantham在推特上发起了一项“护垫侠挑战”，他说，“没错，我手里拿着的是护垫，这没什么好羞愧的，月经是自然的生理反应。请复制粘贴这段话，向你们的朋友发起挑战，拿起姨妈巾拍照吧！”，随后众多印度明星演员纷纷在推特上参与了这项活动，支持电影《护垫侠》。

Amar Tulsiyan, founder¹⁰ of Niine Movement, called Saturday’s decision ‘a big win for everyone’ in India, where, he said, 82 percent women and girls have no access to sanitary pads.

Niine运动团体创建者阿马尔-图尔斯延说，印度政府取消卫生巾税的消息是“属于每个印度人的巨大胜利”。按他的说法，印度82%的女性无法使用卫生巾。

‘The tax exemption is a massive boost,’ he said.

他说：“免税举措可谓巨大进步。”

Many Indians celebrated¹¹ the new tax exemption on social media.

许多印度人在社交媒体上庆祝新的免税政策。

But feminine hygiene products remain out of reach for the vast majority of India's women, with millions in impoverished¹² rural areas using rags or even sawdust, ashes and leaves instead. The lack of proper menstrual hygiene and sanitation¹³ has been linked to girls dropping out of school and lower productivity in the workplace.

但绝大多数印度妇女仍然无法获得女性卫生用品，数百万贫困农村地区的女性使用抹布甚至锯末、灰烬和树叶来代替。缺乏适用的经期卫生用品和设施与女孩辍学和工作效率低下息息相关。

According to India's National Family Health Survey, more than 40% of Indian women aged 15 to 24 do not have access to sanitary products during their period.

根据印度的全国家庭健康调查，15至24岁的印度女性中40%以上的人群在经期无法获得卫生用品。

The figure was as high as 80% for some of India’s poorer central and eastern states.

而在印度贫困的中部和东部一些邦，这一比例高达80%。

India now joins Ireland, Kenya and Canada as one of the few countries where sanitary products are tax-free.

印度现在和爱尔兰、肯尼亚和加拿大一样，成为少数几个卫生产品免税的国家。

Protests are still continuing to demand similar laws in other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Several US lawmakers have campaigned against the so-called "tampon tax," while the "pink tax" -- where women pay more than men for similar products -- has also been slammed by activists around the world.

美国、英国和澳大利亚等国的抗议活动仍在继续，要求这些国家实行类似法律。一些美国立法者开展活动，反对所谓的“卫生棉税”，而“粉红税”（购买类似产品，女性花费更多）也受到全球活动家的抨击。