25 YO Madurai Woman Designs Eco-Friendly, Herbal Sanitary Pads To Do Her Bit For The Environment And The Society. This Is Great!
There are many reasons to hate periods. For one, it’s a monthly subscription to fatally painful cramps, non-stop flow, mood swings and million other things like acne, back pain and, oh, diarrhoea. And you can’t even cancel and get your money back. What money? All the money spent on painkillers, hot bags and sanitary pads. Which reminds me, these sanitary napkins are so bad for the environment. Usually, these pads are made of non-biodegradable plastic which can take up to 400 to 800 years to decompose, according to Menstrual Health Alliance India. Seriously, periods are no good.
However, there are environment-friendly options which cannot save you from the cramps but can most certainly help save the environment to some extent. A lot of brands have been coming up with organic sanitary pads that don’t harm the environment and it’s the most sensible thing to do. Especially now that we have witnessed how sustainability is important during a global crisis. P Neeraja, a 25-year-old designer from Madurai, seems to share the same sentiment. That’s why she created eco-friendly herbal sanitary pads with an aim to do her bit for the planet and society during the lockdown.
Madurai designer makes eco-friendly sanitary napkins https://t.co/znRKnZ5YV3
— TOI Cities (@TOICitiesNews) November 8, 2020
A graduate from National Institute Of Fashion Technology, Neeraja was working for an embroidery firm in Mumbai before she lost her job due to the current pandemic and returned home to Madurai. “When I came back, I started thinking that I wanted to do something that was good for the society,” she told in an interview with TOI. She wanted to contribute to the society, women in particular, and thus came up with the eco-friendly sanitary napkins. “As fashion and women are closely related, I decided to do something good for them and the environment and the idea of herbal napkins came up,” she added.
Her idea was to create something that is herbal and made of natural ingredients which are not harsh on skin since chemicals and gel in the sanitary pads made of plastic could lead to rash and other skin problems. These herbal pads are not only good for the environment but also safe for women to use. She used ingredients like tulsi, aloe vera and neem, which are essentially beneficial for the skin. Plus, her sanitary pads do not contain any artificial fragrance unlike the ones sold in the market. Her team includes her parents and two helping staff who assist with the manufacturing process. Neeraja said that they have sold about 100 packs of her herbal sanitary pads in a couple of months and has received positive feedback from women.
In the excruciatingly long period of lockdown, I think we have become a bit more grateful for what we have. I can’t speak for anyone else but I have become a little bit more conscious as a buyer. That doesn’t only mean considering if the product is sanitized or not, although that is my first priority these days, but also if it is good for the environment. I never gave a thought about how many clothing items were there in my closet before I added more. But being restricted from shopping impulsively in the initial months of the lockdown made me realise how I could contribute to a sustainable future. By using eco-friendly versions of products like sanitary napkins, which makes for one of the major pollutants in world, we can do our bit. Also, we need more brands and budding entrepreneurs like Neeraja to come up with environmentally conscious products while also giving back to the society.
