All-woman sanitary pad unit an entrepreneurial hit
What do you do when banks reject your application for loan?
Set up your own bank, like a group of women in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu did. And out of the novel idea was born a manufacturing unit for sanitary pads, bringing a hygienic practice among thousands of women in the district.
Within less than a year of starting production, Anandi -- the sanitary pad brand – has become a household name among women of Jhunjhunu.
Much cheaper than the branded ones, Anandi pads are also said to be as good in quality.
The product is manufactured by a group of ten village women in the district, and nearly 1,000 pads are sold every day through a network of about 5000 women health and anganwadi workers.
Umed Bhalothia, the supervisor of the pad making unit, said the group of women were steeled by constant rejection by banks.
One of the women who went to banks, she said they wanted the money to set up small units of dairy, papad, spices, etc.
“The bankers would rebuke us and say, ‘Koi kaam nahin hai kya, roz aake baith jaate ho? Jao, parso aana’ (Don’t you have any work to do? You come and camp here every day. Go, come the day after tomorrow),” Bhalothia said.
It was in 2014, she added, an official of the government’s women empowerment department (WED) suggested setting up their own bank.
The first collection in the bank, known as Amrita Multipurpose Primary Cooperative Society, was a modest ₹1,100. Today, the bank has ₹4.56 crore in its coffers while another ₹3.8 crore has been loaned to its women members, according to Viplav Neola, assistant director, WED.
The cooperative bank, which has some 15,000 women as members, gives loans to women at an 8.25% and also provides insurance schemes to its customers.
It was in mid-2016 that the idea for the sanitary pad making unit was floated, again by the WED official, to provide employment to women as well as generate some profits. He, along with a few women visited places in Rajasthan, and also travelled to Mumbai , to learn about the pad making process, says Bhalothia.
The unit was established in Jhunjhunu by the end of 2016 at a cost of about ₹22 lakh. It had two big machines to seal and deliver the finish product, while other smaller machines to grind the wood pulp, iron the mash, and one to gum the product.
The land and building was provided by the WED while a subsidy of ₹6 lakh was given by the district industrial centre. Two experts from Mumbai trained the women in the process.
“We first put the wood pulp into the grinding machine which churns out a cotton-like substance. We pick up 44 gm of that for a pad, iron it and put it in the machine which delivers the pad. After gumming, the pad is ready for use and we put it in the steriliser,” Bhalothia said.
The WED official said the 10 women who make the pads get ₹150 as daily wage. The unit makes a profit of about 50 paise per pad, after deducting the raw material, operational costs, the daily profit comes to about ₹ 500 which goes to the society.
The health of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Medha Patkar— who is on an indefinite hunger strike demanding rehabilitation of those displaced due to Sardar Sarovar Dam’s construction — has been deteriorating, her aides said.
“Her fast entered eighth day on Thursday. She vomited twice this morning and had vomited twice last night also,” said Rahul Yadav, one of her associates.
Even though her health was worsening, Patkar refused medical help. “Her principled stand is that she will continue her fast till the rehabilitation of those displaced is done properly,” said Himshi Singh, who was alongside Patkar at the site of her protest in MP’s Barwani.
The local administration appeared to be uncertain about how to tackle the situation. A team of doctors was visiting the venue of the hunger strike every six hours, but it wasn’t being allowed to examine Patkar.
“At present we are on a waitand-watch mode. If we forcibly take her to the hospital, there is bound to be violence which will be held against the administration,” said a senior administrative official.
In the past, Patkar has sat on a hunger strike four different times seeking proper rehabilitation of the families displaced due to the dam. NBA activists said that her first fast was in Dhulia, Maharashtra in 1994, and it lasted for 10 days. In 1999, her fast in Kewadia, Gujarat lasted for eight days. Her longest fast was in Delhi in 2006, which went on for 26 days. Her last fast was in Bhopal in 2014, which lasted for three days.
A Delhi court on Thursday imposed ₹10,000 as costs on Patkar for her repeated failure to appear before it in defamation cases filed by her and KVIC chairman VK Saxena against each other. Metropolitan Magistrate Vikrant Vaid granted one last opportunity to the activist while warning that he will dismiss her complaint against Saxena if she again fails to appear.