The promise of a safe period

Be it the discomfort or the sanitary pad disposal conundrum, menstruation is a pain. But thanks to new-age hygiene solutions, women today are reclaiming ‘those difficult days of the month’, writes Suchismita Pai.

Period. While the English dictionary gives several meanings for this rather ordinary word, millions of women around the world associate it with discomfort, pain and embarrassing memories. For hundreds of thousands of girls across India, menstruation means five days of solitary confinement; it’s the one reason behind many being forced to drop out of school and also being subjected to discriminatory social practices. Caught between superstition, ignorance and poverty, they end up using anything from straw, ash and tree bark to absorb the flow. 

But this is not a story that enumerates the trials that women face during ‘those difficult days of the month’; it’s about a bunch of people who are using innovation and entrepreneurial skills to make their lives easier and free from the crippling burden of taboos. Kathy Walkling is the brains behind Eco Femme, an Auroville, Puducherry-based all-woman group that produces and exports cloth sanitary napkins by the same name to 14 countries in the world. An entrepreneur by accident, she has been working for more than a decade now towards promoting “menstrual practices that are healthy, dignified, affordable and eco-positive”.

High price

“In a conservative social milieu, a single use sanitary pad does signify freedom – from being isolated, from losing days of work and wages,” remarks Kathy. But whereas it is a boon for many, it also results in escalating the vulnerability and drudgery of another set of people – the waste pickers, who are most often women.

According to Pratibha Sharma of SWaCH, a waste-pickers’ co-operative in Pune and Maharashtra, “In a country like India, garbage is handled by waste pickers and conservancy workers and they use bare, ungloved hands.” Imagine then, their plight because the modern-day, mass manufactured sanitary napkins are completely non-biodegradable. “It was hygienic disposal of pads that got me into the business of making cloth pads in the first place,” shares Kathy, adding, “If each one of the over 300 million menstruating women in India used disposable sanitary pads it would result in over 58,500 million pads ending up in landfills every year.”

When she first came to Auroville in 1997, she was taken aback by the lack of knowledge about menstrual hygiene among women as well as the improper disposal of pads. Loath to transfer the problem of collecting unsanitary garbage to someone else, she experimented with making reusable cloth pads and sewed a few for her personal use. Although initially Kathy did feel “squeamish” using the handmade pads, very soon things changed. “It felt like I was taking charge of my body, taking complete responsibility for something that is so much at the core of my identity as a woman.”

Incidentally, most disposable pads are made from low-density polyethylene plastic polymers, bleached wood pulp and super-absorbent polymer gel that can take up to 800 years to decompose. Apart from being eco-friendly, the Eco Femme pads also help women save money. Use of a single cloth pad is equivalent to 120 disposable tampons or pads over a five-year period.

More often than not, it is the lack of access to safe products that adversely affects women’s health. Over 70 percent Indian women suffer from some kind of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) in their lifetime and a higher incidence of cervical cancer is also linked to this.

Inadequate protection during the menstrual cycle leads to adolescent girls (12-18 years)
missing 50 school days annually while 23 percent drop out of school altogether.

“It was extremely frustrating and puzzling to see girls missing school every month,” says Dhiren Pratap Singh of Azadi, a non-profit organisation that focuses on empowering girls and women so that they can go about their daily activities irrespective of their periods. Right out of college, Dhiren and a few friends decided to teach marginalised children in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. However, the motivated teachers ended up learning why girls invariably fall behind in their schooling. Dhiren and Azadi co-founder Ameet Mehta realised that even with financial support, girls were missing school when they were menstruating. The absence of access to female hygiene products was leading many of these girls to eventually drop out of school.

While Azadi manufactures affordable, 100 percent biodegradable Azadi sanitary pads, “raising awareness and improving education around the importance of sanitary pads and how they significantly improve female health and hygiene” forms an important part of their work.

In another instance, a missing cook led Sambodhi Ghosh on a search for viable menstrual hygiene solutions. On a fellowship in Dhoan, a village in the Western Ghats, he observed that women kept away from work and incurred critical financial losses as they underwent solitary confinement at home during their periods. Moved by their difficulties, he, along with Jaydeep Mandal, thought up of the inexpensive, compostable Anandi pad. “It has as much to do with ignorance as it does with the lack of access to hygiene products,” states Jaydeep. Around 88 percent women and 64 percent girls lose wages for two to four days a month owing to their monthly cycle.

By collaborating with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Aakar Innovations, the social enterprise floated by Sambodhi and Jaydeep devised a machine that produces bio-degradable sanitary napkins from agri-wastes such as banana fibre and bamboo. At present, Anandi pads are being
produced at 12 units across rural India, with expansion plans for another 50 within the next year, offering a sustainable source of income for 600 women and an eco-friendly menstrual product to 1,50,000 rural women. One pack of eight pads sells for Rs 20 and the earnings are wholly controlled by the women self-help groups that manufacture and distribute them.

Conversations that do away with myths, taboos and misinformation that shroud the issue of menstruation as well as availability of affordable products can truly transform women’s lives and promise a happy period.