92% acceptance for menstrual cups in Kerala: Study

With reusable menstrual cups (m-cups) receiving much acceptance in Kerala, the state government is gearing up for massive awareness campaigns to popularise them as an effective alternative for sanitary napkins.

An evaluation of their usage in Kerala found that around 91.5 per cent of the women who received m-cups accepted them as an effective alternative.

Apart from addressing the issue of menstrual waste management, they are found to be a cost-effective and hygienic option.

Sources at HLL Lifecare said that in five years, 5,000 menstrual cups could reduce 100 tons of sanitary napkin waste and 132.5 tons of carbon footprint, apart from saving Rs 10 lakh.

The Kerala government has earmarked Rs 10 crore in the state budget for the 2023–24 fiscal year to conduct awareness campaigns to promote m-cup usage. The drive will focus on schools and colleges.

Also Read | Trans couple blessed with baby in Kerala

In 2019, the Alappuzha municipality launched a significant campaign to promote m-cups in Kerala by giving away 5,000 of them for free. An initiating factor was the challenges encountered in managing sanitary napkin waste following the major floods. Muhamma Grama Panchayat in the district was also declared a synthetic sanitary napkin-free village in 2020.

HLL Lifecare has so far distributed over one lakh cups under its Thinkal Menstrual cups project, mainly as part of CSR initiatives.

A study by an HLL Lifecare team at Alappuzha municipality found that only 20.7 per cent of women who received the m-cups without any awareness were using them, and only 40.6 per cent of those who received some preliminary awareness were using them.

However, 91.5 per cent of the women who received the cups with proper awareness were using it, said the study conducted by Shiny Deena Varghese, Krishna Sreelekha Hemachandran and Jayasree Parvathy.

Former Muhamma grama panchayat president and Alappuzha district people's planning facilitator J Jayalal stated that at least one lakh sanitary napkins were used by women in Muhamma every month. Hence, managing the menstrual waste was a major challenge. But over the past couple of years, there has been a considerable reduction in menstrual waste.

A menstrual cup costs around Rs 500 and can be reused for five to 10 years.