Menstrual Cycle or Monthly Periods of women is delicate topic in India. Women stay in closed rooms all those days and are considered unclean to enter kitchen, temples and other social places. Though India developed and Modernized in many areas, Indian women especially in villages are still backward in this aspect. They keep their periods a secret and never discuss about problems related to it with other women around them. Out of 355 million or more menstruating Indian women, only 12 percent use pads. Rest used unhygienic replacements like rags, ash bags, Sand etc to absorb the discharge and even worse part is that they do not discard these things in open. Over eighty percent wash the bloody rags in closed room that too without any soap or disinfectant and dry them in closed room without sunlight leading to infections and unhealthy conditions.
Many women in urban areas also use rags one of the reason being affordability – Cost of a sanitary pad can be anything from 20Rs to 50Rs which makes the cost for period to 250 to 3000Rs which is unaffordable. Arunachalam Muruganantham a son of a handloom worker of Tamil Nadu devised a Machine that could reduce the cost of manufacturing these pads there by reducing the cost. His machines are spread in 23 states through women’s help groups. Apart from this a Bombay based company named Saral Designs installed pad making machines, eliminating middle men.
Despite of Modernization, this unhealthy situation is found in urban areas of India also. Kanika a lady from Bangalore who went to Kerala found it very hard to buy sanitary of her choice. Though she found it in one of the shops, the shopkeeper would not sell it to her openly and waited till his wife came. This incident conceived to start up of Those5Days which allows sanitary pads and products to be delivered at door step. All these is to put a stop to menstrual taboos.
