With an aim to protect the environment, reusable sanitary pads made from banana fibres was on Tuesday launched by Sanfe, an IIT Delhi-incubated startup.
It is believed that the reusable sanitary pad will work in improving female health and hygiene.
The reusable sanitary pad is developed by Archit Agarwal and Harry Sehrawat, who are final year engineering students at IIT Delhi.
The reusable pads are ultra-thin and are highly absorbent with Quadrant True Lock Technology which makes the pad leakproof and avoids creating any rashes. A patent has also been filed for the design. A pack of two pads is priced at Rs. 199.
Speaking during the launch of reusable sanitary pads, Archit Aggarwal co-founder of Sanfe said," Due to the taboo around it, women hygiene has been neglected in thought and talk. With our innovations in women hygiene, we want to empower women and make their life simpler."
Emphasising on environment protection and use of eco-friendly pads, he said, "Even for women welfare, Government and NGOs regularly distribute subsidized disposable sanitary napkins in rural and semi-urban areas which is a huge cost and harm to environment accounting only for a short term solution. We urge these organizations to switch to Reusable Pads under #IBleedGreen movement."
According to Menstrual Hygiene Alliance of India (MHAI), there are almost 336 million menstruating women in India, of which 36 per cent use disposable sanitary pads summing up to 121 million.
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India has approximately 12.3 billion disposable sanitary napkins to be taken care of every year, and a majority of these are non-biodegradable. Most of these sanitary napkins are made of synthetic materials and plastic, which can take more than 50-60 years to decompose. This enormous amount of menstrual waste is usually dumped in landfills, thrown in open spaces and water bodies, burnt, buried (shallow burial) or flushed down toilets. These disposal techniques create a hazard for the environment, a release issued by IIT-Delhi reads.
Lauding the efforts of the students, Prof. Srinivasan Venkataraman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at IIT Delhi said, "This startup has carved a niche in the domain of women healthcare and hygiene with the launch of another useful product. All the products of Sanfe cater to the important needs of women, use simple science and are sold at affordable prices in the market.