Not a secret business anymore: Brand offers biodegradable banana fibre sanitary pads

Despite the sheer volume of non-biodegradable sanitary pad waste generated in India, less than 50 percent of women are using them. Ahmadabad-based Saathi Pads endeavors to provide environment-friendly 100% biodegradable sanitary pads available to a larger number of women.

In a country like India, where a large section of women are still struggling to maintain their menstrual hygiene and are using conventional ways to deal with natural flow yet over a lakh ton of on-biodegradable plastic sanitary pad waste is generated every year. One can only imagine the environmental implications if 100 per cent women start using them.

Menstrual hygiene products used by women have evolved in the past several decades with comfort, ease of use, change in women’s choices and demand for sustainability.

Conventional sanitary pads are made of plastic and chlorine-bleached wood pulp, which is not skin-friendly and is harmful to the environment. Plastic pads take 600 years to degrade, and are frequently disposed of by burning, generating CO2 and toxic fumes.

Ahmedabad-based Saathi Pads startup started by   engineers from MIT and Harvard  is on a mission to help both women and the environment with fully biodegradable sanitary pad. Their One Million Pads initiative aims to expand access to sanitary pads for women in rural Jharkhand by partnering with NGOs in these regions.

According to a research by UNICEF India in Bihar and Jharkhand found that while 85% of girls were using cloth as a menstrual absorbent, 65% knew what sanitary pads were, because they had seen ads for them on TV. Their reasons for avoiding them range from lack of money to not knowing how to use them. Ignorance about periods in general is definitely shocking: 83% of girls in the same UNICEF study had no idea what to expect when they started bleeding, and nearly half missed school because of menstruation.

Novel banana fiber based menstrual pads can be a remarkable alternative over plastic sanitary pads even amongst women living in rural and urban environments particularly during the pandemic when period poverty is higher than ever, causing women to turn to the reusable product market.

It will make a tremendous difference on account of  the dignity, health and well being of women. As  there is  a pressing need to break the taboo, stigma and shame associated with a natural biological phenomenon.