The Use of Biodegradable Sanitary Pads to Improve the Lives of Rural Indian Women

We have set up our manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India to make 3,000 pads/day. Saathi is launching by embarking on a 1,000,000 Pad Initiative with Ekal Vidyalaya, one of India’s largest education NGOs, which has a network of over 56,000 schools in every states in India to distribute 1M pads to rural girls in Ekal villages. Ekal has identified a female healthcare worker in each of the 100 villages Saathi plans to launch its initial 1,000,000 pad initiative this year. Monthly, these female health workers come together in the city of Ranchi where they are educated about health issues that the women then in turn teach their respective villagers. We have partnered with the THINX Foundation to train these health workers monthly about issues on proper menstrual hygiene practices and reproductive health and give them the pads to distribute in their villages each month. In addition to delivering information and products these healthcare workers have extensive experience collecting information from the villages in which they work in. Additionally, we have are in conversations with consulting firm Dalberg to help design and implement the proper methods for data collection for this study. A large part of the pilot goals is to study the use of biodegradable sanitary pads in rural areas to understand and quantify the impact on health infections caused by the use of unhygienic sanitary pads. School attendances. Job attendance. Waste disposal. Environment.