Jaipur, Rajasthan

Since the time she hit puberty, Shabana Bano had been using a rag during her monthly periods. Two years ago, she was offered a MeraPad. The safe, comfortable and eco-friendly Mera Pad sanitary napkin is made of woven bamboo, can be reused 120 times, and lasts for about four to five years. The 19-year-old is now a regular user of MeraPad.

“I have been using MeraPad for two years now and I am so comfortable with them. It is convenient to use and economical too,” the resident of Jaipur told Gaon Connection. A pack of two MeraPad is priced at Rs 300, while a pack of four costs Rs 550. Each washable pad can last up to five years.

A number of rural women in Rajasthan are switching over to woven-bamboo MeraPad sanitary napkins due to the efforts of Jaipur-based non-profit PraveenLata Sansthan, which has come up with these eco-friendly pads. 

“We did a lot of research on the right kind of fabric to make a sanitary pad that was skin-friendly, eco-friendly and economical,” Bharti Singh Chauhan, founder and president of the non-profit, told Gaon Connection. “We are working on spreading awareness on menstrual hygiene. So far, I have reached out to about 13 lakh women, talking to them and sensitising them about menstrual hygiene, and by 2025, I want to reach 25 lakh women,” she said.

Using regular cloth has also not been a healthy practice either. Often improper washing of the cloth leads to bacterial infections. Also, while initially cotton cloth was used, now women were using mixed textiles, which irritates the skin.

Also Read: Conversation About Periods: Girls in rural Rajasthan show the way

Chauhan began the non-profit in 2013. After the horrific Nirbhaya rape in December 2012, Chauhan wanted to do something for the education, upliftment and empowerment of women. And MeraPad is a part of that initiative of change.

MeraPad is a washable cloth pad made of bamboo charcoal (certified by PETA VEGAN and passed anti-bacterial testing by TUV Rheinland), which is considered to be naturally bacterial-resistant. The bamboo charcoal is sourced from abroad, Chauhan said, but did not want to disclose the country where it came from.

“We tested the fibre by washing it repeatedly and found that it held its shape and quality till 120 washes and remained absorbent. We stained the fabric with ink, and even the ink stain washed off cleanly,” Chauhan said.

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A means of livelihood

Apart from making menstruation safe and a healthy experience for rural women, MeraPad is also providing livelihood opportunities.

During the COVID pandemic, the NGO provided sewing machines to several girls who were in eleventh and twelfth standards. “They sat at home and made the pads, along with masks and bags. This gave them an opportunity to earn some money too,” Chauhan said.

“Right from cutting, tailoring and packing, everything is done by women in making the pads. About 225 women are employed at the NGO,” Chauhan said.

A lot of volunteers worked with the non-profit too. According to her, as of 31 March, 2022, there were 1,560 volunteers who have also worked cumulatively for more than 45,000 hours. “They worked without any salary and those who interned with us got a certificate from our organisation,” she said.

The women employed by the NGO can make about 100-125 pads a day. Each woman is paid Rs 10 a pad to make it and Rs 15 a pad in order to sell it. So on an average women can earn anything between Rs 400 and Rs 1,200 each a day, said the founder of the non-profit.

The women employed by the NGO can make about 100-125 pads a day.

“Our household depended entirely on my husband’s earnings that he made out of a small shop. And when the pandemic happened the shop had to remain closed,” recalled Shaista Praveen, who lives in Jaipur.

“We struggled to make ends meet. But once I joined the enterprise to make MeraPad, I began to earn. It has been nearly three years, and now I earn up to Rs 12, 000 a month to augment the earnings my husband makes,” Praveen told Gaon Connection. She is also training other women in making these eco-friendly pads.

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Needa dropped out of school after her tenth and joined the non-profit where she has been for the past three years. “I make up to 200 pads a day and earn about Rs 10, 000 a month,” the 20-year-old from Jaipur told Gaon Connection. She now helps run her family of five with her earnings.

“During the pandemic, we scoured textile factories to get fabric leftovers and discards from them to make masks and the pouches to keep the pads in,” Chauhan said. MeraPad was displayed at the Rajasthan state government-organised Jaipur DigiFest 2022, and the awareness about the enterprise spread further.

The beginning

The seed of the idea to make eco-friendly sanitary pads came about in the course of Chauhan’s work with rural government schools in Lali, Amer, Ramgarh, Chomu etc. She was also a member of several school committees. “I learnt that the dropout rate of girls from school after they completed their eighth class was increasing,” she said.

When Chauhan sought out many girl students to ask them why they were dropping out, she learnt one of the main reasons was menstruation.

“Girls feel uncomfortable going to school on the days they are having their periods. Added to it were so many unfounded beliefs associated with menstruation. Girls were considered ‘impure’ or ‘dirty’ during these days. And, villagers believed that if the girl had her first periods while she was at her parents, her second one should be at her in-laws. Meaning she should be immediately married off,” Chauhan explained.

It would take time to disabuse people about the myths and misinformation about menstruation, but Chauhan felt that an attempt should be made at least to make the girls feel comfortable when they had the periods. 

In 2017, the Rajasthan state government began distributing free sanitary towels to government schools. But there was some resistance from those who were expected to use the sanitary pads. They preferred the use of cloth as it was more easily available to them, and disposing of the free sanitary pads was a problem.

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Recently a report titled Menstrual Waste 2022, was published by Delhi-based non-profit Toxics Link. The report noted that the disposable sanitary napkins being manufactured in India today have been found to have high chemical content (phthalates and other volatile organic compounds), some of which are carcinogenic and with the potential to affect reproductive health, and cause other ailments.

Then, there is the matter of the non-biodegradable disposed sanitary pads being harmful to the environment. A report by the Centre for Science and Environment titled Sanitary Waste Management: Challenges and Agenda, published in 2022, revealed that 925 tonnes of waste is generated every day from sanitary pads and diapers. In a year it amounts to approximately 337,000 tonnes of waste. In Jaipur district alone, as of September 2022, the Rajasthan government has distributed 22,835,744 disposable sanitary napkins through its Udan Yojana.

Using regular cloth has also not been a healthy practice either. Often improper washing of the cloth leads to bacterial infections. Also, while initially cotton cloth was used, now women were using mixed textiles, which irritates the skin.

Also, once the cloth is washed, women feel embarrassed to hang them out in the open sun, as the blood stains never wash off entirely, so the cloth hangs in dank dark rooms, becoming breeding grounds for harmful bacteria.

All this and more further strengthened Chauhan’s determination to find a healthier alternative for women when they had their menstrual cycles. And the answer came in the form of MeraPad.

“The pandemic turned out to be good for us. Because all the usual places where the women could get the sanitary pads were closed,” Chauhan recalled. “We went online and people came to know about Mera Pad. We got quite a lot of orders then,” she added.

“We also distributed thousands of pads through portals such as Give India and Donate Cart. When the women used them, they spread the good word by word of mouth and till March 31, 2022, there were 1,96,931 women who had used our pads,” Chauhan said with pride.

Titlam Project

Mera Pad is being marketed under the Titlam Project. “Titlam means a person who can create his or her own destiny,” Chauhan explained. Mera Pad is also available online at www.merapad.org

The Titlam project is underway in five villages in Rajasthan. “I hope it will reach 50 villages by 2024-25,” Chauhan hoped. Other than the making of pads, this project also includes training in cattle breeding, organic farming, making handmade products, etc. There will be one woman per village trained in each programme. “It will be the women who will spread education, skill and awareness amongst other women,” Chauhan said.

According to the non-profit PraveenLata Sansthan, as of March 31, 2022, the use of MeraPad has saved 1,785 tonnes of sanitary towel plastics from reaching the landfill.