Great contribution Shamila. I was notified of your posts and thought they were part of the thread I started. 
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/231-me...in-menstrual-hygiene

You have had some really good responses and you have responded well. Hopefully this will generate increasing action to implement the use of compostable pads.
Re-usable washable pads are still being promoted by some. I see caring middle class western women working away to produce these as an economic solution for the poor. Indeed it is, however my concern that it is not the right solution in that water is increasingly scarce in poor regions and the issues of hygiene, taboos and privacy arise. All issues simply overcome in the more affluent western societies. Disposable and compostable menstrual pads at low cost or even free will resolve all the issues for the poor.
 Anandi pad produced by Aakar Innovations is a welcomed product, well tested in India and now spreading to other nations with great need such as Africa and Nepal. Congratulations to Jaydeep and the whole team.

Dear Sharmila,

thanks for your elaborate answers, in particular on the raw materials of the pads, which was the first part of my inquiry. However, this was not meant to question the raw materials or their hygiene. The second part of my inquiry was in reference to convincing educated women of the use of the pads, and this refers a) to comfort and convenience of the user and b) to the users’ mindset in regard to hygiene.

As regards a) I would like to hear the users’ voices, in particular urban educated women. From your mail I conclude that till date there can only be very few. Only now you intend to approach the urban market. - I believe that these women and the celebrities appealing in ads to these users will set the trend. 

As regards b) in my understanding the hygiene of a pad has to be the same as the hygiene of underwear; and there is no need to talk about sterility i.e. medical-surgical hygiene. (In the case of tampons – and the cup – these concerns change, but unfortunately even sterile gadgets introduced into the vagina will change or impact a healthy microbiome – which is not the topic of this discussion.) When we buy underwear, we wear it as it comes from a shop; subsequently we wash it, e.g. at 60 degrees Celsius in a washing machine. Why would there be different concerns and standards for the hygiene of disposable pads – or even for washable pads or for washable nappies?
(I admit that I have not yet studied the standards that you refer to in your mail; the delay of implementing hygiene standards in India might provide great opportunity not to overdo and introduce unnecessary benchmarks.)

It is clear and obvious to me that addition of sanitizers and disinfectants can only be harmful to the user; no need to elaborate on this. But this is unlikely to be obvious to the above-said “educated”, hence my question on your marketing-speak. Hence question a). 

Could you please respond to a) and to b)?
Please understand that I am not scrutinizing Anandi pads insearch of imperfections. In all matters of hygiene & sanitation (and many other fields of life) I'd rather be looking for simple and neat solutions, as low-tech, as rational and as user-friendly as possible – the Anandi pads would be one of those solutions.

Thank you very much, Lucas

Dear Lucas,

We have been working in the villages for past 10 years and selling our compostable pads since 2013 and have reached out to more than a million consumers till date in villages. We never said that we are perfect, but we are a believer of learning from anyone, so over the years we learnt a lot from our village unit workers, village consumers and have been improving our product. We test our village product every month from all units as per BIS (Govt. of India) for sanitary pads in our in house lab by IIT-Kgp scholar, make report & share it with the unit supervisors, our operations team, donors for scope of improvements(if any). Our pads are certified by BIS, NABL authorised labs. Jaydeep is part of BIS advisory committee for sanitary pads by Govt. of India which came up with new revised BIS standard for pads after 30 years in India in last Dec, 2019 after more than 2 years of deliberations. Aakar is the only small manufacturer of pads to be part of this committee along-with industry giants like P&G, J&J. I am happy to share that our compostable testing certificate as per IS/ISO-17088 was taken as reference in the committee and now in new BIS it is clearly stated that any product which claims to be compostable, biodegradable need to certify it as per IS/ISO-17088 from Govt. recognised labs. Although, unfortunately BIS is still not compulsory in India and many companies are taking advantages of it and cheating consumers by fake biodegradable, compostable products. Currently we have both ultra-thin & fluffy versions pads available for village consumers as per their choice, our experience says women in villages still like fluffy pads but slowly they are moving towards ultra-thin versions. Our Urban pads were ready after hundreds of user trials/feedback from urban consumers for a year but couldn't start selling because of funding issues (ethical, social companies don't get funding in India). But, we have managed some funds internally and now planned to start selling in Amazon and few other online channels from next month along-with our own pads website (www.anandilife.com). We hope to scale our sales in subscription & organised offline retail model as we raise equity funding. 

Let me know if you need any information in this regard.

with regards
Sharmila

Dear Lucas,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have shared the materials information in my reply, please see if you have any more queries on it, happy to clarify. On the agri-waste,plant fibres and cellulose as materials, please understand pine wood pulp(which is most commonly used materials as absorbent core for pads, diapers, tampons across the world) is a plant based pulp only, even another popular material(in USA, Europe & India among urban women & girls) in recent days, organic cotton is also a plant based material. So, the challenge is not the what materials you are using, it is the hygiene & safety of any materials used in the products which is important for them as per our understanding. We work very hard to ensure that unlike many other multi-national products which use harmful crude oil based SAP, fragrances & other toxic ingredients without disclosing it's harmful effects to the consumers. We have ben researching on indigenous raw materials for last 10 years without receiving any funding for RnD, but we will commercialise those materials only when we are sure about it's 1)hygiene & safety, 2)availability & supply-chain, 3) cost effectiveness/commercial feasibility from other currently used alternatives. I hope this gives clarity to you, happy to answers any of your queries as ethics, transparency (leaving our proprietary info) & scientific thought process has been core of our organisation. We struggle a lot because of these values but we have been proudly working in the sector for last decade with people, International organisations, Govt.s across the globe recognising our work in the menstrual hygiene sector. 
with regards
Sharmila

Dear Chris,

Sorry for late reply, I was not well.  We have made pads with several bio- materials. In our village product we use hydrophilic nonwoven from bio-based materials as top layer, PLA/PBAT based Bioplastics as back barrier layer, Elementary Chlorine Free wood pulp from sustainable forest or Airlaid Paper with BioSAP(our unique natural super absorbent) as absorbent core, water soluble gum, release paper & PLA/PBAT based Bioplastics for packaging. We are also making pads with Jute, Water Hyacinth, Bagasse, Banana fiber, Bamboo pulp as absorbent core in combinations in pilot scales in India and Africa. We are launching our product in urban market in a month where the change in materials will be top layer- we will use a combination of Global organic textile standard certified 100% organic cotton & hydrophobic nonwoven from bio-based materials. We are present in 10 countries through our mini-factory partners in India, Africa, Nepal and are in discussion with several others developed countries for our urban product. But the idea of expanding to urban commercial market is not for just making money, but more importantly supporting village women, girls & communities in a better way. Every sales we make in urban market a portion of money will go for giving free pads(produced in village mini-factories owned, run by village women groups, creating sustainable livelihood for them) along with unbiased, scientific menstrual hygiene education(which also talks about cloth, cloth pads, disposable pads, tampons, menstrual cups as bucket of choice, we believe in informed choice & freedom of choice for choosing menstrual hygiene product by women & girls themselves) to needy women & girls in remote villages. We have been doing this for last 7-8 years through partner funds, now will generate our own funds and do it in much larger scale.

We are also working on compostable baby diaper, will share details as soon we are ready to commercialise it. We have been vermi-composting our pads & exploring other practical options with partners and fellow network members like you. Looking forward to your support to expand our solution to more needy women & girls around the developing world.

with regards
Sharmila

My earlier mail to Sharmila requires a comment:
The website of Anandi pad also clarifies that the raw material for the pads is water hyazinth, bamboo, banana stem etc.
The question in reference to offering the pad to urban women remains: How is this "marketed"? How is this sold? Are there disadvantages in regard to bulkiness, discomfort etc. etc.? - If this technology is technically and in regard to the user's convenience without disadvantages, what would hamper its adoption and use? (Besides and along with the use of decent washable pads or the cup)
Thanks, Lucas    

Dear Sharmila,
I am eager to know what the compostable pads are made of, at least as eager as Chris in South America. (I am at home in India.) Your website states, "The compostable Anandi pad is produced with locally sourced agriwastes." - While this statement does not deter me - a man, with countryside upbringing, farm work experience, medical studies, working with UDDTs and ecosan solutions - it sounds as if it could keep away urbanites with little understanding of ecological cycles and plant fibres and cellulose and down-to-earth hygiene. In India urban women, the more "educated" the more, are afraid of "germs" and conditioned to keep hygiene issues as far away as possible. I cannot imagine that "agriwastes" as the raw material for a menstrual pad has any positive meaning for them. 
Please clarify.
Thanks a lot, Lucas  

Hi Sharmila,

Congrats.

Can you tell us more about what your pads are made of and what the process is like? Are you expanding into other countries? The idea of compostable baby diapers is a BIG step toward sustainability. I would recommend that all of these compostable pads and diapers can simply be dropped into Urine-diverting Dry Toilets.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

Hello, Sorry we were not part of the forum earlier but with some of your reference we joined in. Our Anandipads is the 1st & only certified ( ISO 17088) fully compostable pads in India. Unfortunately there are several fake claims are there in the market now, who are fooling consumers by normal or oxo-degradable pads and even selling it at 2-3 times cost than of P&G, J&J brands. We have composted our pads in vermi-composting process in lab, field trials in schools, community in Nepal. We are selling our pads pack of 8 for 40 INR for many years. Now we are entering urban market with our ultrathin version(in Amazon and other online portals) with industry 1st BioSAP. A portion of revenue from every purchase of commercial pads will go for providing free pads for needy women & girls in interior villages and those pads will also be produced in our village production unit, thus giving employment opportunities for rural women.  We will also launch fully compostable baby diapers soon at an affordable price. Please feel free to reach out to us for any queries. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Would appreciate some clarification. States home made pads, then later return to packet for composting. Latter implies a manufactured product such as Anandi pad. Many thanks.

Dear SuSanA Members.

On the subject of Eco friendly home made Sanitary pads, there is sufficient information and as it occurs it has become a normal feature in parts in Rural India.
The cost of each pad is Rs 10 ie @ 0.1 to 0.2 USD. ( 75 Rs = 1 USD).
Awareness can easily be built into this CBM ie Community Business Mechanism ie waste to wealth programs by CBM.
Once used pads are handed over ( returned in same sealed envelope which contained the new ones) to those specific waste handlers who carryout composting-- bio wastes into manure Etc.
Lab tests may be done and ensured that the produces in this path ie compost are bio logically safe for use in farms for fertigation, fish food and others
If this is ensured, a buy-back scheme can be initiated ie community persons are paid say INR 1/- per pad, this CBM can help the poor and needy, also keeping the environmnt clean.( SD practice can be show cased )
We have gathered that there are certain communities who resort to vermi - compostng, ie. use the mechanism to produce manure and worms too.
In fact, vermi- farming is a more gainful CBM as the worms have a lot of good uses and potential for CBM , including assisting community in catching fish from water bodies, streams or local areas.
Here too, it is suggested that compliant tests are done and safe nature of the produces are ensured.
Projects can be progressed as pilot - projects and then conceptualised and propagated Etc.
Issued in the interest of sustainance of CBMs.
Well wishes.
Prof Ajit Seshadri. The Vigyan Vijay Foundation. New Delhi. India. -- NGO ,

Hi Asha,
Progress is being made by Aakar Innovations, India with the compostable sanitary pad. Now well established in India and they a have now established partners across Africa.  I am sure you would welcome low cost compostable pads that can beneficially disposed via composting.
Aakar are willing to help with establishing local manufacture. Suggest you make contact. Current contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Can contact via Whatsapp by mobile phone on +917718844450