While periods are a natural medical condition that almost every woman goes through on a monthly basis, very few know the real consequences of using sanitary napkins. While our country is moving towards building a sustainable future, a greater chunk of women are still using pads and tampons which, after a single-use, take an average of 700 years to decompose leaving the environment in misery.
While there are sustainable solutions available, very few people are open to trying them out due to baseless myths spread across the world. It is presumed that by using cloth pads there is a higher chance of leakage and of getting rashes due to moisture accumulating in the pads.
We spoke to Mansi Sampat, founder of Blissful Women, a female hygiene product manufacturer and distributor regards sustainable menstruation hygiene products, she mentioned, “While our country is developing each and every day, there are health-related subjects such as menstruation hygiene that are still frowned upon. While women in urban areas use plastic sanitary napkins, and tampons, we have seen it through our eyes that women in rural areas use ‘hay’ ‘Cow dung & ash cakes.’ and ‘old clothes’ during the time of their periods, which leads to them contracting infections.
While we talk to women about these sustainable products being available, we come to realize that people have yet not understood the difference between using ‘cloth’ and ‘cloth pads’. While when a cloth is used at the time of periods, there is a higher possibility that excess blood would leak, but when it comes to cloth pads, they are specifically designed to ensure that they could soak in the flow leaving very little moisture on the surface preventing irritation and rashes.”
Cloth pads are highly sustainable in nature as it can be used for around 80 cycles if maintained properly which is a cost-saving and environmentally friendly solution.
