How sanitary napkins are changing lives of rural girls!
Hygienic sanitary napkins will help bring down the school dropout rate among girls in rural India -- this was the inspiration for Aakar Innovations
August 05, 2013 / 12:43 IST
Sonali Chowdhury
Not many entrepreneurs would invest Rs 5 lakh of their personal savings and seek loans from family and friends to launch a venture that makes sanitary napkins for rural women.But Jaydeep Mandal and Sombodhi Ghosh had worked with grassroots development initiatives for eight years and had seen the pitiable health and hygiene young girls and women in rural India were subjected to. When it hit home that many girls drop out of school at the onset of their menstrual cycle, these friends decided they had to make a difference.Mandal and Ghosh registered their venture Aakar Innovations in 2011 and have begun manufacturing low-cost sanitary napkins as well as selling the technology to NGOs and village entrepreneurs that work with rural women. Better still, Aakar Innovations uses a model that employs local women and thus creates sustainable livelihoods for them."We set up village-level microenterprises that manufacture affordable and biodegradable sanitary napkins under the brand Anandi. These enterprises are owned and run by women while Aakar takes care of technology, supply chain management for raw materials and last-mile distribution and sales," explains Mandal.Identifying The ProblemMandal is an engineering graduate, who went on to do an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Sombodhi, on the other hand, is a graduate in Microbiology. Before they joined hands to set up Aakar Innovations, both friends had worked with non-profit organisations and government bodies on development issues and innovation-based livelihood interventions. They were fully aware of the challenges they would face but still decided to go ahead."We were surprised to find out that women use ash, dirty clothes, rags and other unhygienic materials during menstruation. We were even more surprised to find that girls in rural areas drop out of school when their started their menstrual cycle," reveals Mandal.The duo also realised that there were barely any affordable products or technology in the market that addressed the issue. Considering the scale of the problem, they decided to go ahead.Developing The TechnologyAfter they registered their company, Mandal and Ghosh did their own R&D and launched a mini-sanitary napkin machine in June this year. The machine has been designed using low-cost technology and uses low-skill requirement to operate. It has also been customised for rural production.Currently, Aakar has one demo unit in Dwarka in Delhi that caters to the needs of around 500 customers. The company is setting up another production unit in Berhampur, West Bengal, as well as several across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha.The company has signed an MoU with Gujarat to set up production units, create jobs and reach out to women customers. "Once the project is successful on the ground, it will greatly benefit women's health," says Dipali Pujara, State Project Manager, Cottage Industries, Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Company Limited. Aakar is not the only company working in its domain. Manipal Foundation also runs a project with self-help groups who are engaged in the manufacture of sanitary napkins. The foundation will be upgrading its old machinery by installing Aakar's machines in August this year, says Mahalaxmi Nayak of the foundation.Funding The VentureAakar Innovations received Rs 6 lakh from the National Innovation Foundation during their pilot stage, through a Micro Venture Innovation Fund scheme (MVIF). It also received Rs 3.6 lakh as a grant under the Mahindra Spark The Rise' initiative, as well as support from the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad.Revenue Model And Scaling UpAakar Innovations is at a pre-commercial launch and pre-revenue stage. Its revenue will come from two sources -- sale of technology and raw materials for the manufacture of sanitary napkins and sale of the final product.Each machine, which costs Rs 2.5 lakh, can produce 1,500-2,500 sanitary napkins per day. The technology can manufacture two types of sanitary napkins -- a biodegradable and compostable one, whose production cost is Rs 2 apiece and an MNC-standard sanitary napkin, whose cost is Rs 1.5 apiece."The cost factors is the price of raw material, workers' wages, rent and electricity. We will price our products at Rs 2-2.5 for a normal sanitary napkin and Rs 2.5-3 for the biodegradable one," says Mandal.How does Aakar plan to scale up? "We work as a hybrid model, where our non-profit arm Aakar Social Ventures is engaged in community engagement, capacity building and awareness generation on menstrual hygiene," reveals Mandal.You can send your feedback on smementor@moneycontrol.com or simply post comments below Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
