As per existing published research across India, the usage of Sanitary Napkins among rural Indian women ranges between 27% to 35%.

Regarding school absenteeism owing to menstruation in India, this number is around 24%.

Menstrual Hygiene Management 

Menstruation is a natural, normal biological process experienced by adolescent girls and women. Yet, in many societies, it is steeped in silence, myths, taboos, and even stigma. Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is an important issue affecting the health, dignity, self-esteem, and privacy of millions of adolescent girls and women across the globe.

Girls Have Fear / Feel Shameful

1. Poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools, inadequate puberty education, and lack of hygienic MHM items (absorbents) cause girls to experience menstruation as shameful and uncomfortable.
2. Studies indicate girls feel fear and humiliation from leaking blood and body odor, leading menstruating girls to be absent from school.

Health problems

1. Adolescent girls are facing various menstrual health problems like abdominal pain, menorrhagia, polymenorrhea, etc. However, very few of them seek treatment for the same. These untreated problems are also responsible for the loss of school days or job days at work
2. Owing to high cost and ignorance, women and girls often use old rags, clothes, or other unhygienic materials as menstrual absorbents, which may lead to reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and many other health problems

Why

1. Women and girls do not have access to education on puberty and menstrual health and when they turn to their mothers for information and support, a majority of the mothers consider menstruation as a ‘dirty’ topic to discuss, further perpetuating the taboos.
2. Besides, a majority of them due to high cost, do not have access to quality menstrual absorbents and use homemade alternatives i.e. old clothes, rags, etc.
3. In rural areas, the shopkeepers are male, mostly one or two shops in the village, most of the shopkeepers are known, and they do not feel comfortable.

Our Proposed Solutions

It is found that most of the rural women do not use disposable sanitary pads throughout the year in the village area due to various reasons - costs, forgetting to buy, male shop keepers, unavailability, some known members being at shops and busy with household work, and many other reasons.

We proposed REUSABLE Sanitary pads i.e. UNIPADS

Why UNIPADS 

1. Health: Disposable pads are made of plastic whereas Unipads are made of cloth and are chemical-free which makes it skin friendly and rash free.
2. Eco-friendly: A single use disposable pad takes minimum 600 years to decompose whereas Unipads are made of cloth material resulting in reduced sanitary waste.
3. Affordable: a good quality disposable pads may cost minimum INR 600-800 per year whereas Unipads costs less than half

For Women by Women

1. Unipads have designed an inclusive model for marginalized women where pads are manufactured by rural village women, thus keeping the manufacturing costs low and providing employment opportunities to over 185 village women.
2. UNIPADS has reached marginalized women through fully or partially funded projects

UNIPADS Major Products

1. UNIPADS Reusable Sanitary Pads
2. UNIPADS Cotton Panties

Approach and Methodology

Expected Beneficiaries

Women and girls from underserved communities of different rural areas, tribal areas, remote villages, semi urban areas and urban slums

Approach Survey

• Carrying out a Baseline Survey regarding current menstrual hygiene practices
• Collect data on their health & Hygiene
• Collect data on problems faced by the beneficiaries.

Survey Outcome

• Mapping the area and expected beneficiaries
• Understand their psychology, social and financial problems and accordingly plan an awareness workshop program

Awareness Workshop

Subject experts carry out the workshop on:

1. Puberty and bodily changes
2. What is menstruation and why does it occur
3. Understanding the ideal period cycle, dos and don’ts during periods
4. How to manage periods, hygiene practices and red flags when to see a gynac
5. Touch and feel of all the period products available in the market like disposable pads,
6. tampon, period cups and cloth pads, along with learning their pros and cons
7. Why reusable and sustainable period products are a better choice
8. Busting the myths and taboos around periods
9. Q&A

Impact of the Project:

Helping women and girls from underserved communities to gain correct knowledge about menstrual health and hygiene and give access to sustainable & reusable period products (Cloth pads and undergarments) to manage their periods with dignity.

Qualitative impact:

1. Better health: Safe period products prevent future infections like UTI, vaginal tract infection etc.
2. Better self-esteem, that comes from managing their periods with dignity
3. Savings & Preventive healthcare: Cut down on expenses related to gynecologist due to various infections caused by unhygienic period products.
4. Shattering myths and taboos as a result of MHM awareness sessions
5. Promoting open conversation around Menstruation
6. Period positivity
7. Improves School attendance
8. Better knowledge on taboo topics, which helps them make informed decisions and choices.
9. Providing safe and hygienic menstrual hygiene kits which last for over a year.

Thematic area/Activities under Schedule VII:

We as an organization cover 3 areas or activities under the Schedule VII which are included by companies in their Corporate Social Responsibility Policies:

1. Promoting health care including preventive health and sanitation, including contribution to the Swatch Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation, and making available safe drinking water.
2. Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly, and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects.
3. Rural development projects.

1. Women empowerment
2. Improvised Health and hygiene
3. Rural employment and development