- By JVG Krishna Murthy
- 0 Comments
WHEELS – AAPI Panel Discussion on Menstrual Health
APPI’s annual Global Health Summit at AIIMS New Delhi on 03rd January 2024.
WHEELS is collaborating with AAPI (Association of American Physicians from India) to have one-hour panel discussion on ‘Menstrual Health’ (under the banner of ‘Kanya Conference’) during APPI’s upcoming annual Global Health Summit at AIIMS New Delhi.
Background & Objective of the Session: (See the Flyer)
Event Update from the Summit:
Global Health Summit at AIIMS Delhi. We brought together five innovations (including our NOBA) to showcase solutions that address affordability, access, environmental-friendly options, and import elimination for India. Tremendous hard work by our former Board Member Dr. Vikas Khurana to get introductions by Prof Satya, Yogesh Andlay, IIT-D/UBA program, Amb. Pradeep Kapur to get great panelists. Also, thanks to Prof Kannan, Ashank Desai, and Yogesh Andlay for traveling and attending it. WHEELS and AAPI announced a joint award of $10k to promote further acceleration of innovations. Great teamwork by many WHEELS leaders, including Dr. Raj Shah.
Project – Kanya: Sanitary Napkin Machine
An African proverb states “If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family – and a whole nation.” With a more educated female population, the literacy rate of the entire country will steadily increase because women are more likely to teach their children and their peers than men. A higher literacy rate leads to an increase in human capital, higher GDP, and a higher standard of living.
With this thought, the “Kanya project“ was first started by a 14-year-old girl in 2013. She visited a village in Telangana, deeply disturbed and saddened by the lack of support for young girls like herself. She raised funds in the US, collaborating with an Indian company “Aakaar” and had the first self-sustaining “sanitary napkin manufacturing machine“ installed in Burgula, Telangana, India on February 8, 2018. Today, we have multiple companies that are working towards the same goals and we at WHEELS Global Foundation would like to take the issue of “ Period Poverty“ forward. (https://twitter.com/
UNICEF reports that “in countries where menstrual hygiene is taboo, girls in puberty are typically absent for 20% of the school year”. Most girls drop out at around 11 to 12 years old and miss school not simply because they fear being teased by their classmates if they show stains from their period, but also because they are not educated about their periods, and their need for safe and clean facilities is not prioritized.’
WHEELS’ objective is to drive a portfolio of solutions to address the problem at a national scale in the next 3-5 years so there is a right-fit solution to each segment – meeting affordability, accessibility, sustainability, and self-reliance for the country.
To address the above issues, we will be discussing five compelling solutions we are bringing to the target beneficiaries – to not only address the unmet need for 46m rural girls and women but do it with environmentally friendly (sustainable) solutions that also eliminate India’s import bill.
I. The panel discussion will cover the innovations as briefed below:
- 1. NOBA Initiative for Menstrual Health
♦ The NOBA GSR, a non-profit, got together to shape a societal response to the menstrual health problem afflicting the young women residing in rural Bihar and Jharkhand resulting in an innovative solution model consisting of a simple WiFi-enabled dispenser machine, securing sourcing of quality pads at affordable rates with ease of delivery & replenishment. This initiative has proven successful, reducing absenteeism and dropout rates while improving academic performance. In just two years, NOBA GSR has installed machines in 585+ locations, impacting over 150,000 lives and providing more than 18 million pads annually at just Rs. 2 per pad. The solution addresses cost, social issues, disposal using incinerators avoiding landfilling.
In the next wave, NOBA plans to reach 5 other states that are at the bottom of the list for the usage of safe menstrual means. The effort is well on the way to achieving the goal of scaling to 10+ states over the next 4-5 years reaching the majority of 46m girls and women. The solution is led by IIT Alumni Om Prakash Choudhary, IIT BHU and Jawahar Lal, IIT Bombay.
- 2. M-Cup by Anitha Thampi (IIT-B CTARA graduate) – supported by Prof Satish Agnihotri (IIT-B) and Prof Kannan’s Spoken Tutorials solution (to make it easy to communicate value-proposition to rural residents)
♦ The M-Cup project, implemented by HLL Lifecare Ltd in 2018 in the flood-hit areas of the Alappuzha district of Kerala observed 91.5% acceptance from the feedback study. the project got national-level acceptance in 2021 and 12 projects were executed at various parts in Kerala. In 2022, the Menstrual Cups project was included in the 14th Five-year plan of Govt of Kerala. National Health Mission has approved the M-Cup pilot project in Bihar and 2 districts of Jharkhand 30 projects are in the pipeline in Kerala.
- 3. Anandi Pads by Jayadeep Mandal, supported by WHEELS’ Yogesh and Arjun Malhotra
♦ Aakar Innovations & Aakar Social Ventures founder Jaydeep Mandal is a leading figure in the Menstrual Hygiene and Health sector globally having innovated and created the first ~100% compostable sanitary napkin certified by the highest lab of the Govt of India. Jaydeep is a protege of the National Innovation Foundation of the Department of Science & Technology of the Govt of India. He is an important contributor and Advisory member of the Bureau of Indian Standards Committee for new standards for Sanitary pads published in Oct 2019. He features in the select group of PMO & Niti-Aayog’s “Champions of Change”. Jaydeep has won Bio-based materials of the year award 2019-Germany, Global Bioplastics Award 2018-Germany for Compostable Anandi pads which are treated as Oscars of Bio-Industry.
- 4. Saukhyam founded by IIT-Delhi alum Praveen Bist and Anju Bist – providing Banana fiber-based solution.
♦ Saukhyam follows a hub and spoke model in Kerala, processing the banana fiber and stitching it onto a cloth. The other raw material required includes cotton cloth, thread, PU fabric for the leakproof layer, metal buttons and these are common to all reusable pads. This half-stitched material is sent to satellite production centers for further finishing. They are washable, don’t easily stain, and washing is easy. This year, the solution has been expanded to new satellite centers in MP and Maharashtra. In the coming year, satellite centers in Haryana, Uttarakhand (through a partnership with IIT Roorkee), and Odhisa will be initiated.
The central factory in Kerala can support the production of 1 million pads annually or about 8 lakhs monthly. In rural areas, it is through rural SHGs or Asha workers that most of the distribution happens.
- 5. Aashraya Seth providing a low-cost dispenser (Rs. 2,500) for schools along with education curriculum and reusable cloth-based pads.
♦ To address the issue of girls dropping out of school due to menstrual hygiene challenges, Ashraya came out with an innovative solution – India’s most affordable non-electric sanitary pad vending machine costing Rs. 2,500. The machines designed to be compact and sustainable are installed in the school washrooms. Girls can access the sanitary pads by pressing a button at no cost.
II. The Panel Session: (See the Flyer)
* Dr. Inderpal Chhabra – Welcome the audience to the Session on behalf of GHS Committee.
* Dr. Anajana Samadder, President, AAPI – to share a few words on behalf of AAPI.
* Dr. Sumul Rawal, Secretary, AAPI – to moderate the Panel discussion starting with messages by Dr. Raj Shah, Dr. Vriti Khurana and Ratan Agarwal. – (See the Greeting Video)
* Anitha Thampi (of MCup): Anitha Thampi is working as Director, Technical and Operations at HLL Lifecare Limited, a Mini Ratna Public Sector Undertaking under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Prior to her current role, Dr. Thampi was Vice President, HLL Corporate R&D, and CEO of HLL Management Academy. She has earlier served as CEO of HLL’s subsidiary Goa Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited (GAPL). She has been spearheading the pioneering campaign on M-Cups rolled out by HLL, since 2018. A graduate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kerala, Dr. Thampi holds an MTech and PhD from CTARA, IIT Bombay. She is also a poet, essayist and translator.
* Jayadeep Mandal: Aakar Innovations & Aakar Social Ventures founder Jaydeep Mandal is an Engineer and MBA in Innovations and Entrepreneurship with a Global Innovation Program certificate from GSB-Stanford University-USA. He has 12+ years of experience in menstrual hygiene, rural innovation and micro-enterprise development as an entrepreneur, consultant/advisor. His work is acclaimed by several governments, World Bank, UN organizations, UKAID, USAID & International NGOs like Aga Khan Foundation, President of India, CII, FICCI, UN, Miss World Organisation and Miss India Organization for innovation and entrepreneurship in the menstrual hygiene sector.
* Prof Virendra Kumar Vijay (of IIT-Delhi’s UBA Program) speaking on UBA supporting Saukhyam: Prof. Vijay is actively engaged in cutting-edge research in rural energy technologies for developing rural communities and has made a great contribution to the academia, industry, society through research and education. He is working for a sustainable energy supply from locally available resources in villages. Prof. Vijay’s work on biogas technology, particularly biogas upgradation is well recognized at the global level. He is also the national coordinator of two major national programmes of the Govt. of India, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), that aims to utilize knowledge institutions of the country to help villages in their development and Scientific Utilisation through Research Augmentation (SUTRA) – Prime products from Indigenous Cow (Panchgavya) of Ministry of Science Technology which will help in reinstating the cow-based rural economy supported by critical scientific validation and research
* Dr. Meenakshi Bharat: Dr. Meenakshi Bharath is not only a Gynecologist and Fertility specialist but she’s also a green campaigner, an advocate for Clean India, a strident voice for garbage segregation and recycling, and a relentless fighter promoting Sustainable Menstruation and Menstrual Health. She worked at the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre, for close to a decade, then returned to India in 2000 and established her private practice to help couples with modest means to welcome their bundles of joy, back home in Bengaluru. As a doctor and a woman, she was appalled by the detrimental effects the sanitary pads posed both to the health of the women using them and the grave threat to the environment. Green The Red (GTR), movement of sustainable menstruation was born as a result of this heightened awareness and the need for immediate action. The newly innovated product -the MENSTRUAL CUP made out of medical grade silicone, is extremely comfortable to use, making us forget that we have periods. Each menstrual cup can be used for 8-10yrs.
Dr. Bharath believes that the way forward is to use the menstrual cup for HAPPY, COMFORTABLE PERIODS for women across the world. This change from using disposables to reusables -is good for women’s health, good for the environment and economics.
* Prof Satish Agnihotri: Professor, Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay. Prof. Agnihotri has been a career bureaucrat and has served the Government of India and State Government of Odisha in several capacities. Under his initiative, the Government of Odisha had launched a campaign in November 1998 to eliminate severe malnutrition among children. Later he initiated the adoption of the positive deviance approach for tackling child malnutrition. His commitment lies in the area of rapid reduction of child malnutrition, advocacy based on evidence, promote cross-sector collaboration, Renewable Energy and Energy Policy, Gender, Rural development and technology scale-up, Use of Mapping Techniques in social Sector planning and Public Policy. His research on declining sex ratios in India has been approvingly cited by various scholars including Prof. Amartya Sen.
* Ashank Desai: Ashank is the Founder and Former Chairman of Mastek Ltd. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. He is the Founder Member of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), Past Chairman, and now a Member of “Chairmen’s Council” & invited on Executive Council. Ashank has been felicitated by Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi for his contribution to NASSCOM & IT Industry for the last 25 years. Ashank also is the founder and former chairman of Mastek and the winner of
III. Kanya Challenge Award: Transforming Menstrual Hygiene through Indigenous Innovation
Inspired by the physicians and engineers of Indian origin in America, the Kanya Challenge Award seeks to catalyze groundbreaking advancements in menstrual hygiene for Indian women through the development and commercialization of absorbent materials made from indigenous Indian resources.
Challenge:
● Develop a high-performance, eco-friendly absorbent material for feminine hygiene products using locally sourced Indian materials.
● Commercialize the product, achieving sales and use by 100,000 consumers with at least 50% satisfaction (based on surveys by 10% of users).
Award and Recognition:
To accelerate the journey to a fully affordable, safe, accessible, and domestically self-reliant solution, AAPI & WHEELS are jointly announcing a $10,000 Award with the following objectives:
♦ Award funds will be used to accelerate affordability and access – which when achieved gets us national scale penetration.
♦ It will be given to the entity submitting “the best plan, using the funds, to achieve material acceleration of affordability and access of an environment-friendly imports-avoiding solution.
♦ Submissions deadline 31st March 2024”.
WHEELS and AAPI teams will have a joint panel of experts to select the winning entry for the announcement at the appropriate forum soon after.
Event Update:
Global Health Summit at AIIMS Delhi. We brought together five innovations (including our NOBA) to showcase solutions that address affordability, access, environmental-friendly options, and import elimination for India. Tremendous hard work by our former Board Member Dr. Vikas Khurana to get introductions by Prof Satya, Yogesh Andlay, IIT-D/UBA program, Amb. Pradeep Kapur to get great panelists. Also, thanks to Prof Kannan, Ashank Desai, and Yogesh Andlay for traveling and attending it. WHEELS and AAPI announced a joint award of $10k to promote further acceleration of innovations. Great teamwork by many WHEELS leaders, including Dr. Raj Shah.
