Indigenously Manufactured Low Cost Jute-Pulp Sanitary Napkins To Replace Wood-Pulp Pads

GUWAHATI: IJIRA (Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association) has come out with an indigenously manufactured low-cost and more environment-friendly substitute for imported wood-pulp sanitary napkins (SNs). The manufacture of such napkins has immense potential in Assam and Meghalaya, besides West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha to improve female hygiene which is found inadequate in most of the States in India.

In Indian context, IJIRA’s sanitary napkin using jute as the core material is more advantageous than the imported ones. The imported wood-pulp sanitary napkin leads to deforestation and as such it is damaging for the environment. To counter this major problem, IJIRA has developed a technology to produce low-cost sanitary napkin using jute as the core material. It is a sponsored project of the National Jute Board, Union Ministry of Textiles.

According to Indian Jute Industries Research Association office in-charge Th Basanta Singh, in India jute is abundantly available and annually renewable agricultural crop. The dire necessity of jute-made sanitary napkin in India, according to him, is such that only 8-10 per cent of the about 350 million potential users of sanitary napkins in the country use them. Because of the cost, sanitary napkin is not used by majority of women, he said.

The Indian sanitary napkin market is quite large, and according to available reports, only 35 per cent of the requirement is manufactured indigenously. Rest of the demand is met through import. According to IJIRA’s report, there is about 23 per cent school dropout among the girls in India due to non-access to sanitary napkins.

IJIRA enumerated advantages of jute pulp napkins over wood pulp ones as – the cost of the former is 30-40 per cent less than that of the latter, jute pulp napkin pads are 100 per cent biodegradable, free from synthetic chemicals, raw indigenous material (jute) is annually renewable, etc. This indigenous napkins have been tested and certified by the National Test House, Kolkata, besides meeting the BIS specification (IS:5405-1980).

IJIRA has already got its sanitary napkin patented.

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