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W20917
ECO FEMME CLOTH PADS: REACHING RURAL WOMEN
Sreeram Sivaramakrishnan, Subhasis Ray, and Paromita Goswami wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion.
The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised
certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.
This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized, or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the
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Copyright © 2020, Ivey Business School Foundation
Version: 2020-11-23
Kathy Walkling loved Indian monsoons. The constant downpour of rain created its own music outside her
home office, located in Auroville, near the Indian city of Pondicherry (officially known as Puducherry). As
she settled down to relax on a Friday evening in 2016, a popular jingle made her look at the TV. An
advertisement for sanitary napkins claimed to make the lives of young teenagers hassle-free during their
menstrual periods. The product was made by a multinational company and the storyline revolved around an
urban, upper-class, adolescent girl who was happy not to miss her tennis match during her periods. Walkling
thought, “Do these ads really make young women and girls in villages want to buy disposable sanitary napkins
(DSNs)? Does anyone ever wonder what’s inside these napkins and where they end up after use?”
Walkling started Eco Femme (EF) in 2010 with three friends. EF produced aesthetically designed, washable
cloth menstrual pads. These cloth pads were made by rural women in Tamil Nadu, India.1 Since its
founding, EF had attempted to increase the acceptance and sales of the cloth pads through a variety of
educational initiatives, product modifications, and distribution tie-ups. By 2016, the initiative was making
progress with affluent urban and international customers, and the team’s efforts at educating women were
laudable; however, they were not making significant inroads with the rural population that they most wanted
to support. The enterprise was in a quandary: with little funds for marketing and a taboo around discussing
menstruation, how could they improve their reach in their target market?
Walkling reflected on the discussions she had with her team that morning, with particular concern for
implications of the data presented by Mélanie Le Febvre. Le Febvre, a fresh graduate from ESSEC Business
School in France, was the new strategist for the eight-member EF team. She had presented the sales figures
for domestic and international sales of the pads, as well as those from their newly launched online store. In
their discussion, Le Febvre also touched upon the Essmart market research report that had reached her two
weeks earlier.2
With that information fresh in her mind, Walkling had to talk to Jessamijn Miedema, one of the co-founders
of the enterprise. How could EF reach women in rural India? The team had come up with three options for
distribution of the cloth pads to reach the rural markets and Walkling had to make a preliminary
recommendation to Miedema.
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KATHY WALKLING’S STORY
Walkling grew up in Australia. She first visited Auroville during her travels in India in 1996 and
immediately felt at home in the community. Not long after becoming a resident in 1997, she started to
encounter the reality of a new way of life. The Auroville community threw challenges for which her
Australian lifestyle had not prepared her. There was the unrelenting heat in May and June and no airconditioning. Village visits exposed her to the reality that many homes did not have toilets. But her toughest
moment was when she needed to dispose of her used sanitary napkin. She was told that she would have to
dig a hole and bury it somewhere in the ground. She could not imagine why she would have to dump plastic
and burden Mother Nature. She just could not adapt and adjust to burying biological waste.
A year later, she visited her brother in New Zealand. While shopping at a small village store, she stumbled
upon a cloth pad—unbranded and clearly homemade. That was Walkling’s eureka moment. These pads
could be used, washed, and reused; there was no dumping of plastic. She bought and tried out the pad and
was impressed by all the benefits: the safety of natural cotton without any chemicals, the elimination of the
need to dispose of used pads, the cost savings, and even the way that washing the pads brought her more in
direct contact with menstruation, which she had been taught to think of as distasteful. She decided to make
the cloth pads for the women in Auroville.
Over many years of getting cloth pads stitched locally for women in her community, Walkling began to
understand that the pads were appreciated by many women. She even saw interest from women who wanted
to retail the pads in Europe. Environmentally conscious women in the Western world appeared more willing
to make the switch back to cloth for menstrual protection. Like her, Walkling felt that they did not want to
dump plastic waste into landfills. The only difference between them and her was that she was literally
forced to dig a hole and bury the used napkins, while those in other countries had the convenience of a
better waste management infrastructure. This led them to believe that waste from disposable menstrual
products was somehow being properly handled.
By 2010, after observing the trends in sales of DSNs these trends in India and abroad and seeing the organic
uptake of cloth pads in her community, Walkling saw an opportunity to take the project to another level.
She met Miedema, one of EF’s co-founders, in 2009. Her grassroots work with the non-governmental
organization (NGO) Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG) allowed Miedema to gain an intimate
understanding of the realities of menstrual hygiene management in rural communities. This led to the two
starting EF as a social enterprise in 2010.
MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
Menstruation, remained a complex and taboo topic for discussion and education in modern India. In many
Indian communities, menstruation was considered unclean and thus those who experienced it were not
allowed to participate in social events. They were usually denied entry to temples or places of worship.
Traditionally, Indians who experienced menstruation used scrap cloth during their periods. These were
washed and mostly dried in the shade so that they were away from the public eye.3
About the same time that EF started, a widely cited study by AC Nielsen reported that only 12 per cent of
India’s 355 million people who menstruated used sanitary napkins. Eighty-eight per cent of the respondents
used old, unsanitized cloth, ashes, or husk sand; approximately 70 per cent of the respondents said they could
not afford sanitary napkins. The incidence of reproductive tract infections was 70 per cent more common
among these people. Almost all the gynecologists (151) surveyed by Nielsen agreed that the cause of infection
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was mainly menstrual cloths that were not properly cleaned and dried and that use of clean sanitary napkins
could act as a preventive measure against urinary tract infections and possibly prevent cervical cancer.4
Many Indian school-going children had to miss up to 50 days of school per year due to social inhibition and their
discomfort during menstruation. Such absences had a bearing on their self-esteem and learning. Twenty-three
per cent of those surveyed by Nielsen said that they dropped out of school after they started menstruating.5
In 2010, as part of its National Rural Health Mission, the Government of India announced its menstrual
hygiene scheme: the distribution of sanitary napkins at a subsidized price to school-going girls.6 However,
it was not clear how successful the program was in getting rural girls to use napkins. What worried activists
was the potential impact of the use of DSNs on India’s environment. Napkin disposal remained an underresearched and under-discussed topic. Most women disposed of their napkins by throwing them away,
flushing them in toilets, or burning them. This, in turn, clogged open waterways and sewers. In the case of
commercial napkins made of polymers, burning them released harmful toxins into the air.7
Initial research conducted by EF revealed that menstruation was a complex, multifaceted issue among
women. It touched on social, cultural, economic, environmental, health, religious, and gender issues. EF
conducted surveys, focus groups, and seminars to better understand and facilitate more conversations on
the topic. Presented with the multiple solutions in the market for menstrual hygiene management, many
local women showed interest in washable cloth pads (see Exhibit 1).
The conversations created the impetus for EF to test a batch of cloth pads among rural women. Seeing the
favourable response, the EF team considered catering to the local rural markets in addition to exporting the
cloth pads to international customers and selling them in domestic urban markets. The main focus would
be increasing the reach in the rural markets.
MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS AND MARKETS
Products used during menstruation ranged from reused cloths to washable cloth pads, DSNs and tampons,
and menstrual cups. Traditional Indian society held taboos regarding vaginal insertions. Hence, most
menstrual solutions were centred on commercial sanitary napkins. Tampons and menstrual cups, while
popular in the West, were not a preferred option in India.
According to estimates by Deloitte India, the personal hygiene market of India was predicted to grow to ₹20
billion8 by 2018. The same study reported that less than 10 per cent of reproductive-aged Indian females were
aware of the basics of menstrual hygiene.9 The retail value of the sanitary napkins market in India grew 14
per cent in 2015, and it was expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 9 per cent in subsequent years.10
Available products in the markets were dominated by leading multinational companies. The Proctor &
Gamble Company’s (P&G’s) Whisper had a 51 per cent market share in 2011. Stayfree from Johnson &
Johnson Inc. and Kotex from Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Unilever) were other popular brands in the market.11
An emerging, low-cost market player was the Indian innovator Arunachalam Muruganantham. Coming
from a poor background and seeing the discomfort of his wife during her periods, Muruganantham started
exploring low-cost solutions for menstrual hygiene. After many failures, he came up with a machine that
produced low-cost napkins using simple, indigenous technology. The machine proved to be hugely popular
for its simplicity and ease of use for rural women and the opportunity to generate income by manufacturing
and selling the napkins. Though not part of the Indian government’s program to distribute free sanitary
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napkins, Muruganantham wanted to expand to other Asian and African countries.12 Some Indian
corporations encouraged community women to make, use, and sell such low-cost products as part of the
corporations’ social responsibility programs.13
However, even Muruganantham’s products were single-use and meant to be disposed, so waste disposal
remained an issue. Concerns had also been raised about the ingredients of a DSN. Manufacturers of
commercially produced napkins and tampons were not required to declare their ingredients because they
were categorized as medical devices. However, women’s health advocacy groups and citizens’ groups were
pressuring companies to disclose the ingredients used in the making of menstrual hygiene products. Bowing
to these pressures, P&G and Kimberley-Clark Corporation disclosed the ingredients in their products. An
advocacy group, Women’s Voices for the Earth, raised concern about flex foams, adhesives, and fragrances
used in the products.14 Even with DSNs that had a relatively low concentration of toxic chemicals, their
very presence spelled health hazards for women.
DISPOSABLE SANITARY NAPKINS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
If DSNs were widely adopted, then, according to one estimate, India risked producing more than 580,000 tons
of environmentally hazardous menstrual waste every year. All this material would likely end up in landfills.15
Most DSNs were made from plastic polymers, bleached wood pulp, and super-absorbent gel. The wood
pulp and cotton present in sanitary napkins contained trace elements of chemicals like dioxins and furans,
which were by-products of manufacturing and cotton-growing processes. Both dioxins and furans were
known to be highly carcinogenic ingredients and toxic air pollutants. Researchers estimated it would take
500 to 800 years for a single DSN to break down.16
DSNs in landfills (along with other types of waste) were often burned in mini incinerators by local municipal
authorities. Burning napkins at a temperature less than 800° Celsius could produce asphyxiates into the
atmosphere.17 Exposure to such fumes or ashes could have adverse effects on the immune, nervous, endocrine,
and reproductive systems of human beings along with severe ill effects on other living creatures.18
Typically, used DSNs would be wrapped in paper or just thrown away in garbage dumps, open water bodies,
public toilets, or, sometimes, in open sewer lines. With the Indian government’s free distribution scheme,
the use of sanitary napkins in urban and rural India was increasing. The indiscriminate disposal of used
DSNs created a challenge for sanitation, waste, and public health officials, and it already stretched
municipal operations. A large volume of non-biodegradable, used sanitary napkins posed a threat to water
quality and public drainage systems. Some estimates put the waste related to sanitary napkins at 432 million
pads per month.19
Walkling felt that there was also a human rights issue involved as the result of municipal sanitation workers
having to unblock drains clogged by used DSNs.20 Waste handlers in India sent bags of soiled sanitary
napkins in heaps to the offices of P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Kimberley-Clark in an effort to
draw their attention to the necessity of proper disposal of menstrual waste.21 The situation, Walkling felt,
could be significantly improved if consumers were made aware of the negative environmental consequences
of using DSNs and educated about alternative, reusable product options. Washable cloth pads provided a
more environmentally friendly alternative.
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MAKING THE ECO FEMME CLOTH PAD
EF was founded in 2010 by Walkling, Miedema, Anita Budhraja, and Anbu Siromoni at Auroville near
Pondicherry. Auroville was an international township established with the ideals of the Indian yogi and
philosopher Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual partner Mirra Alfassa. Auroville was envisioned as a living
laboratory with a goal of achieving human unity through its work. With its credo of “all life is yoga,”
Auroville attracted local villagers and many foreign nationals who worked with Indians toward spiritual
and sustainable development.22
AVAG was an NGO that aimed to support sustainable development of neighbouring villages. EF’s initial
idea was to work with AVAG to train its self-help group members how to stitch cloth pads (see Exhibit 2,
image 1). The activity could generate revenue for the NGO while ensuring a livelihood for local women.
Walkling was motivated to develop cloth pads similar to the one she bought in New Zealand. She and the
EF team wanted to produce and sell washable cloth pads as an inclusive, sustainable, and environmentally
friendly product. The inclusivity came from participation of local women to make products they needed.
Manufacturing napkins could give them economic and social empowerment. Because washable cloth pads
addressed community issues and taboos, they were tools for social engineering and sustainability-oriented
innovations. The most significant impacts of washable cloth pads were their health benefits, reusability,
and ability to reduce the use of and the impact created by the disposal of DSNs.
Washable cloth pads had benefits for many stakeholders, like health officials, doctors, local and national
governments, and municipalities, in addition to new users. The pads generated much less upstream and
downstream waste because of their raw material and design. Rural Indian women already used old cloth,
but unclean and discarded; the washable cotton provided a natural, safer, and more ecological alternative.
With both old and new cloth already used by rural Indians, washable cloth pads provided a more natural
and ecological alternative. EF products lasted for 75 washes (i.e., three to five years) and thus significantly
reduced the environmental impact. However, they required clean, reliable water sources, which could be
difficult to find in some rural communities.
Product development followed the process of acquiring, reviewing, and testing many of the cloth pad
options that were already available in the global marketplace. The team settled on the “all-in-one” model,
which looked like a disposable pad with wings that fastened around underwear and had a leakproof layer.
This was chosen as the basic model that would become commercialized (see Exhibit 2, image 2).
The EF team also understood that discretion around drying would be an important factor to address in the
design if the pads were to find appeal among rural women and girls who would feel shy about drying a
menstrual product in a place visible to others. This led to the design of the foldable pad model, which was
developed in collaboration with a design studio (see Exhibit 2, images 3 and 4).
The team also prototyped a third model—one involving a belt—that could be used by women who did not
wear underwear. After rigorous product testing in 2011 with more than 850 rural participants, clear
indicators emerged as to which products would find acceptance. The team developed a poster and began
marketing (see Exhibit 3).
TARGET MARKET
Initially, EF was completely dependent on international sales. They signed up a distributor on the UK
Earthwise Trading site, which actively promoted EF’s product on the website and distributed the product
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to other retailers. Miedema also started selling the pads to her Dutch friends. The word spread and more
orders started trickling in. There was already an existing market for cloth pads in the West among
environmentally conscious women, so EF tapped that growing international trend. Auroville’s online portal,
www.auroville.com, also generated both domestic and international sales.
Eventually, EF had a growing list of retail distributors in different countries. Online platforms helped the
enterprise to communicate its products and its benefits. Many enthusiastic customers promoted both the
concept and the product in places like Germany; positive responses were reported. The enterprise was
successful in finding a niche group of customers across the globe who were looking for alternative
menstrual hygiene products that were sustainable, healthy, and had a positive social impact.
Online customer reviews in India were also positive. They highlighted the fit, comfort, and aesthetics of
washable cloth pads while questioning whether Indian women had the mindset to wash their own used
napkins. EF pads were also sold at Auroville’s visitor centre. Sometimes a visitor, Indian or foreign, would
buy the product and contact EF after making the switch, with an offer to help spread the word. EF called
them “the ambassadors.” Many would talk about sustainable menstrual hygiene products in their
communities. Some sold EF pads to their family members and friends. In the domestic market, sales
happened through ambassadors and organic online and off-line stores.
However, Walkling and Miedema knew the biggest challenge was how to reach beyond affluent urban
consumers in domestic and international markets. Keeping in mind the challenges of reaching rural markets,
EF decided to keep the price of the cloth pad very low in the rural markets. EF was actually spending nearly
₹120 to produce a single cloth pad (both the all-in-one and the foldable varieties) but was hoping to subsidize
the sale of cloth pads in rural areas. For a package of six pads (the typical number of washable pads needed
during a period), EF priced their products around ₹360. DSNs for a period would be around ₹60.
EF developed a pad-for-pad program that gave affluent customers the option to donate a pad to an
adolescent girl in India. For domestic customers, a separate payment of ₹86 could be made as a pad-forpad contribution, even without buying any cloth pad in EF’s online store. For international customers, all
pad purchases automatically included a pad-for-pad donation as a default. Similar to domestic customers,
international customers could also additionally contribute to the program without buying any pads. Thus,
international sales were leveraged to increase the ground-level impact for poor girls and women. Those
who could not afford DSNs could now use a safer and eco-friendlier product, thanks to this innovative,
cross-subsidization model. Women who could not afford to pay for cloth pads were also supplied with pads
at subsidized rates on request or through NGOs through the Pads for Sisters program.
BEYOND CLOTH PADS
Apart from product sales, EF focused on improving the nature and extent of community knowledge on
menstruation by trying to encourage conversations pertaining to its practices and products. On social media,
a Facebook page highlighted the issue of sustainable menstrual hygiene practices. Workshops on menstrual
health education were held with local partners. With international NGOs like WASH United, EF
popularized its core work through celebration of the first global menstrual hygiene day in May 2014. As
part of this work, Walkling and her colleagues created a document with 28 questions to facilitate and enable
conversation around the topic. Overall, the EF business model provided knowledge, education, and
awareness to menstruating women, in addition to providing livelihood opportunities to rural women.
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Going ahead, EF faced many challenges. It could not afford to spend heavily on marketing, although its
multi-national competitors were aggressive in marketing through print, electronic, and social media.
Further, the Indian government’s program of distributing free DSNs legitimized the choice of DSNs instead
of reusable pads for menstrual hygiene.
Reaching Rural Women
Walkling believed that EF had a sustainable and superior product for menstrual hygiene management in
India. Yet, were they really adopting the best go-to-market strategy?
The team used every available opportunity to educate the rural poor. For example, in June 2015, EF’s
partners held seven workshops in Chhattisgarh for a “make-your-own” pad kit, educating women and girls
about menstrual hygiene and giving them the knowledge and skills to make their own pads. But the team
wondered whether these workshops and pad-for-pad programs were the only way to reach poor women.
As Walkling headed into the EF office that morning, she knew she had to understand some of the details
related to the sale and acceptance of the pads. She had asked Le Febvre to study the issues and prepare a
presentation on the topic. Around noon that day, Le Febvre began her presentation with a description of the
overall sales of the pads. She quickly skimmed through the overall numbers for both individual pads and
the pad-for-pad donations (see Exhibit 4). Le Febvre mentioned that the EF e-shop was contributing 10 per
cent of the overall sales. She also added that 60 per cent of the online sales were international.
Knowing that Walkling always had questions regarding rural consumers, Le Febvre quickly moved on to
rural markets. She then pulled out the Essmart rural markets study that was commissioned by EF and
undertaken in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu two months prior. The purpose of the study was to try
and understand whether rural kirana stores might be willing to carry EF products.
There was a network of kirana stores across the length and breadth of India, which were the equivalent of
convenience stores in other parts of the world. These stores offered items of daily consumption like milk, eggs,
groceries, cosmetics, and sanitary napkins. These were usually standalone stores which were family owned.
Walkling also wanted to know whether women were willing to pay to try the cloth pads over a three-month
period. She was especially interested in knowing whether EF could market directly to the consumers. Would
they be able to reach the rural poor through the rural kirana stores?
Le Febvre handed the Essmart folder to Walkling. She had earmarked some pages with notes for special
attention. Walkling stared at the page that indicated that five out of six women interviewed said they were
using branded DSNs.
Le Febvre continued her presentation, highlighting that 31 per cent of potential buyers were comfortable
learning about EF from a female employee at one of the shops, while 69 per cent were comfortable with a
female friend or relative explaining the benefits. She went on to describe the pilot program they carried out
with six shops, which kept EF pads on a trial basis. Only two were able to sell them, and not all the shops
wanted to keep EF products because they did not want to talk about the products with their customers. They
were also unwilling to pay for the inventory cost when there was such minimal awareness about EF.
Le Febvre also spoke about user experiences, which were mostly positive. While 47 per cent said the pads would
be easy to wash and dry, most were hesitant to wash the used pads themselves (see Exhibit 2: Image 5).
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OPTIONS
Walkling knew that they would use online channels like Amazon and Flipkart for targeting urban women.
The proceeds of these sales would help them subsidize the rural sales. In terms of actually reaching rural
women, they saw three potential options.
Self-Help Groups
Self-help groups were associations of men or women from similar socio-economic backgrounds. They
usually were formed under an existing NGO to tackle economic and social problems by providing access
to education, microfinance, and peer solidarity. One such NGO was the AVAG, which helped promote the
integrated development of the Vanur Block of Villupuram District in Tamil Nadu. AVAG emphasized codevelopment and worked directly with community groups in designing solutions based on a deep
understanding of the needs of the communities. They raised awareness on issues like caste, discrimination,
violence, and well-being, which hindered the overall growth of society.23
This channel seemed promising since it enabled easier access to large groups of women who could
positively influence each other. The trust within the self-help groups was core to their functioning. Walkling
was particularly enamoured with this option since it provided a space where conversations around
menstruation could be held and education on the topic could be provided. The model would involve selling
the pads to the self-help groups at ₹55 per pad (inclusive of delivery costs). The groups were free to sell the
pads at any price, but the suggested price was ₹60 per pad. However, Walkling knew that it would be
difficult for EF to reach self-help groups across the country. Moreover, the groups tended to frequently shift
their points of focus from one concept to another.
Local Kirana Stores and Pharmacies
Apart from the kirana stores in small towns and villages, there were also small pharmacies. While kirana
stores were far more ubiquitous than pharmacies in villages, their sizes were heterogenous. Pharmacies, on
the other hand, were restricted to towns and larger villages. According to EF’s estimates, both these
channels would demand margins of 15 per cent.
Le Febvre had highlighted some of the issues with this channel in her presentation.
Local Apparel Stores
The idea to market through local apparel stores was slightly different, emerging after several internal
discussions. The idea came about based on one of the problems raised by some grocery stores, which was
that the movement away from DSNs toward cloth pads was a movement toward a far more durable product.
DSNs were purchased on a regular basis, with a menstruating woman, on average, using eight DSNs in a
month.24 This meant there was a constant source of income for companies producing DSNs as well as the
intermediaries involved in selling them.
Grocery stores and pharmacies might be reluctant to sell the cloth pads since they did not foresee a constant
source of income. This meant there was an opportunity to sell the cloth pads along with undergarments or
other apparel items that were bought by women. Informal inquiries among distribution experts revealed
that these rural apparel retailers usually bought their merchandise from freelance wholesalers in the cities.
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The wholesalers usually bought goods that they were certain would sell in large quantities. A typical rural
retailer would visit a city on a particular day and pick up all their wares from one or two wholesalers.
Apparel stores typically stocked their products on the shelves for a longer time (than fast-moving consumer
products) and hence demanded greater margins. EF estimated this margin to be about 25 per cent. Walkling
doubted, however, that these wholesalers and retailers would take the time to educate their customers.
While the three options were not necessarily mutually exclusive, Walkling knew that EF did not have the
capacity or the skills to create three different channels and manage them. Also, she and Miedema had set
an end-of-the-year deadline for finalizing and launching the cloth pads in at least one channel. Thus, she
had to quickly zero in on one channel and proceed. Walkling also needed to make a plan for best educating
and promoting the concept of cloth pads without the budget or the marketing muscle of either private
companies or the government.
Walkling was meeting with Miedema later that evening. Before she headed out the next day for her silent
meditation retreat, they had to finalize EF’s go-to-market strategy.
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EXHIBIT 1: ECO FEMME’S RESEARCH
Eco Femme conducted surveys, focus groups, and seminars to understand the complex issues relating to
menstruation among Indian women. Some of the key findings were as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seventy-nine per cent of the women felt uninformed about the menstrual cycle and their bodies.
The arrival of menstruation was often celebrated with rituals. Ninety-five per cent of women followed
traditional norms out of respect as well as fear of committing a transgression.
Used sanitary products were burned, buried, or left in public toilets for sanitation workers to handle.
Many women were concerned when they found out about the effect of the random disposal of sanitary
products.
Adolescent girls were dissatisfied with pads given to them by the government.
Women showed interest in the innovation and beauty of washable cloth pads.
Source: Company files.
EXHIBIT 2: CLOTH SANITARY PAD PRODUCTS
Image 1: Stitch-Your-Own Pad
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EXHIBIT 2: CLOTH SANITARY PAD PRODUCTS (CONTINUED)
Image 2: All-In-One Pads
(front side of bright single colour, back side with polyurethane laminate leakproof layer)
Image 3: Foldable Handkerchief-Like Pads
Image 4: Folded Napkins with Travel Pouch
Source: Company files.
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EXHIBIT 3: POSTER PROMOTING CLOTH SANITARY PADS
Source: Company files.
EXHIBIT 4: DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL SALES (2015-16)
Domestic International
Number of individual pads
Pad-for-pad donations
8,013 pads 10,533 pads
150 pads
4,500 pads
Source: Company files.
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ENDNOTES
1
Tamil Nadu was a state in southern India.
Essmart, “Market testing and feedback report for EcoFemme”, 2015, internal document made available by Eco Femme.
3
Dasra, Spot On! Improving Menstrual Hygiene and Health in India, 2014, accessed June 8, 2020,
www.dasra.org/resource/improving-menstrual-health-and-hygiene.
4
Kountenya Sinha, “70% Can't Afford Sanitary Napkins, Reveals Study,” Times of India, January 23, 2011, accessed December 9,
2019, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-cant-afford-sanitary-napkins-reveals-study/articleshow/7344998.cms.
5
Ibid.
6
Aarti Dhar, “Scheme for Low-Cost Sanitary Napkins to Rural Girls Approved,” Hindu, June 16, 2010, accessed May 20, 2020,
www.thehindu.com/news/Scheme-for-low-cost-sanitary-napkins-to-rural-girls-approved/article16245441.ece.
7
Rajanbir Kaur, Kanwaljit Kaur, and Rajinder Kaur, “Menstrual Hygiene, Management, and Waste Disposal: Practices and
Challenges Faced by Girls/Women of Developing Countries,” Journal of Environment and Public Health (2018): ID 1730964.
8
₹ = INR = Indian rupee; ₹1 = US$0.01321 on September 30, 2016; all currency amounts are in ₹ unless otherwise specified.
9
Press Trust India, “Women Personal Hygiene Market Size Pegged at Rs 2000 Crore by 2018,” Economic Times, May 28,
2015, accessed June 8, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/fmcg/women-personal-hygienemarket-size-pegged-at-rs-2000-crore-by-2018/articleshow/47455135.cms.
10
Euromonitor, Sanitary Protection in India, 2016, accessed June 8, 2020, www.euromonitor.com/sanitary-protection-inindia/report.
11
Nidhi Jamwal, “Why Are We Pretending That There Isn’t a Growing Mountain of Menstrual Waste We Need to Deal With?,”
Yahoo! News, January 9, 2015, accessed June 8, 2020, https://in.news.yahoo.com/why-are-we-pretending-that-there-isn-t-agrowing-mountain-of-menstrual-waste-we-need-to-deal-with-111659074.html.
12
Vibeke Venema, “The Indian Sanitary Pad Revolutionary,” BBC News, March 4, 2014, accessed June 8, 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978.
13
Subhasis Ray, Incubating Social Entrepreneurship as Part of Corporate Social Responsibility (International Development
Research
Centre,
Canada,
and
Villgro,
2012),
accessed
September
21,
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www.academia.edu/23767993/incubating_social_entrepreneurship_as_part_of_corporate_social_responsibility.
14
“P&G, Kimberly Clark List Ingredients in Tampons, Pads after Consumer Pressure,” CBC News, October 27, 2015, accessed
June 8, 2020, www.cbc.ca/news/business/tampons-pads-ingredients-1.3290877.
15
Dasra, op. cit.
16
Paul Delaney, “How Long It Takes for Some Everyday Items to Decompose,” Down2Earth Materials, February 14, 2013,
accessed June 8, 2020, www.down2earthmaterials.ie/2013/02/14/decompose.
17
Kaur, Kaur, and Kaur, op. cit.
18
Gaia, Incinerators: Myths vs. Facts about “Waste to Energy,” February 2012, accessed June 8, 2020, www.no-burn.org/wpcontent/uploads/Incinerator_Myths_vs_Facts-Feb2012.pdf.
19
Soma Basu, “Kicking up a Stink,” DownToEarth, June 7, 2015, accessed June 8, 2020,
www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/kicking-up-a-stink-41036.
20
Bindu Mohanty, “Disposable Pads, Disposable Lives,” Earth & Us, April 15, 2014, accessed June 8, 2020,
www.earthandus.org/disposable-pads-disposable-lives.
21
Basu, op. cit.
22
“Auroville in Brief,” Auroville, February 8, 2020, accessed October 21, 2020, www.auroville.org/contents/95; Swati Chopra,
“All Life Is Yoga,” Life Positive, November 2001, accessed October 21, 2020, www.lifepositive.com/all-life-is-yoga.
23
“Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG),” Auroville, accessed June 8, 2020, www.auroville.org/contents/805.
24
Research commissioned by Eco Femme.
2
This document is authorized for use only by Hira Wajahat in 2021.