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#LahuKaLagaan is a global campaign for tax-free sanitary napkins that was launched in 2017 to support SheSays India’s worldwide campaign for the same, which was started in 2016. The awareness campaign was successful in breaking several taboos associated with menstruation and making it a mainstream topic of conversation among the masses and in media. The hashtag, which got over 24 million impressions on Twitter in less than 24 hours, encouraged women to make their own videos, asking the Indian Finance Minister to drop the tax on sanitary napkins.
The campaign was an instant hit and spread like wildfire with several well-known personalities taking to social media to speak up on the issue. Soon enough, celebrities like Vishal Dadlani, Aditi Rao Hydari and Mallika Dua were posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, urging the Government of India to make sanitary napkins tax-free. The message was simple, sanitary napkins are an item of necessity and not of luxury. While the government did not succumb to the pressure, the campaign made ‘tax-free pads’ a household topic. However, in 2018, the government finally included sanitary napkins in the items of necessity and hence it has been declared tax-free.
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