A 26-year-old law student, Sachin Asha Subhash from Pune, Maharashtra has undertaken an initiative to recycle old clothes and produce cloth pads for tribal women. The pads will be provided free of cost. Samajbandh, the non-profit aims to provide a cost-free hygienic life to rural tribal women who cannot access or afford high-priced sanitary napkins.
Sachin said the idea of working towards women’s health in India sparked after he was actively invested in social service which involved redistribution of used clothes among the underprivileged. This urge to make reusable cloth pads became stronger after his mother had to undergo surgery to remove her uterus for not taking proper care during her menstrual cycle.
Sachin said the idea of working towards women’s health in India sparked after he was actively invested in social service which involved redistribution of used clothes among the underprivileged. This urge to make reusable cloth pads became stronger after his mother had to undergo surgery to remove her uterus for not taking proper care during her menstrual cycle.
Sachin wanted to provide an easy yet eco-friendly solution to the problem. While still in his second year of college, he ordered samples of commonly found sanitary napkins and cloth pads to study and then formulate the best possible alternative.
Sachin’s organisation, which has a wide network of volunteers, including women’s health doctors, employs three women in the processing unit in Pune. Each cloth pad takes up around half a meter of material and needs to be disposed of once every six months.
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