From: Thiagarajan Arunachalam <thiagarajan.arunachalam@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 8:58 AM
Subject: 'Shuraksha' for rural women!
To: karmayog-hyd@yahoogroups.com, ngo group <birdsofsamefeathers@googlegroups.com>
Society for Human Empowerment has come up with low cost sanitary pads for rural women
It's common knowledge that personal hygiene matters little to rural women. When it comes to use of sanitary napkins, it is still considered the domain of the urbanites…!
Ignorance, coupled with lack of affordability, has remained a bane on the countryside, where women still depend on cloth pieces during menstrual periods. Now, a Piler-based voluntary organisation, Society for Human Empowerment (SHE) has come up with small-scale production of sanitary pads for spreading the message.
Branded as "SHE Shuraksha", this product is touted as a low-cost alternative to the handful of reputed brands in the market. "Health hazards like cervical cancer and ailments potentially leading to hysterectomy have been attributed to the lack of adequate menstrual care. Hence we saw the need to educate rural women on this issue", says P.V.S. Lakshmi, founder of 'SHE' and the ZPTC member of Piler mandal, who set up the unit under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).
Cotton, the main raw material is first smoothed using a pulverizer and then hardened in the shape of cakes. After the dyeing process, which helps retain the shape, the cotton is sealed with wafer-thin absorbent material made of cellulose pulp to eliminate the chances of staining. With dotting (making a double dent to let the cotton stay in place), sterilization and packing, the end product is ready for distribution. The product comes in three models viz., regular, with wings (premium) and a strap-belt (mostly for illiterate women). Ten semi-literate women are employed to make 500 pads a day. "We have to make at least 1,500 pieces a day to break it even", says Lakshmi.
A self-made entrepreneur, she is presently supplying the product to 'Mahila Super Market', a women's departmental store in Tirupati, while eyeing DWCRA women, adolescent girls in state-run schools, welfare hostel inmates and to some extent, the college/university students as target customers. The cost of each pad is worked out at Rs.2, which is same as the selling price. "With a subsidy or incentive, we can support the National Rural Health Mission's scheme to provide a pad at Re.1 to young girls in rural areas", she adds.
Lakshmi is keen on getting the product launched by the Chief Minister and their local legislator N. Kirankumar Reddy at the earliest.
Society for Human Empowerment has come up with low cost sanitary pads for rural women
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