Pad for All, Anytime, Anywhere

Menstruation is such thing which almost every woman must deal with in Bangladesh. According to a statistic, 95% of women don’t use sanitary napkins, because they can’t afford it. Social Taboo, High price of sanitary pads make it difficult for women to manage their menstruation hygienically leading to illnesses and absence from work and going to school. To break the stereotype and to ensure safe menstruation we will run a project Named “Pad for All”. First, we will install Vending Machine at workplaces, educational institutions and public Toilets and will supply biodegradable sanitary pads which is cheap compared to the product of local market. As the solution will directly create the accessibility to use the sanitary napkin for the women and girls who work outside of the house and studies in different educational institutions anywhere anytime with a cheap rate, this will bring a huge change in terms of women health, hygiene and will create a healthy society. 

When girls hit puberty and begin menstruation, they can see their opportunities radically diminish. Menstruation may mark the start of restrictions to their mobility and behavior. Somewhere it is believed to signal that girls are ready for marriage or sexual activity, leaving them vulnerable to child marriage and sexual violence. In addition, menstruation can happen at any time, anywhere leaving a girl in vulnerable situation. Sometimes it forces girls to opt out of school once they reach puberty. And there is very little awareness about the facts of menstruation among the young girls in Bangladesh.  The scenario is tough and challenging in workplaces particularly in Garments industry where 90% employees are women. Sanitary pads are either too expensive or unavailable for women in many areas of Bangladesh. A single sanitary pad costs anywhere between 10 to 15 BDT, so affordability could be a factor that determines menstrual hygiene practices in Bangladesh. But there are also misconceptions about store-bought sanitary pads. Urinary tract infections are twice as prevalent among women who use cloth during menstruation than those who use sanitary pads.

• All women within (10-40) age range is our potential customer but initially we will target to get attention from 10% of the total potential customer. Female worker from garments sector (5 million) Female student from educational Institutions (7 million) and women from Other working sector will be directly benefited from our initiative.
• The main beneficiary or stakeholder of the project are women. And there are certain things that they cannot express to everyone in our society. Only girls understand their problems and priorities better than any man. Most of our team are girls. To understand their needs and priorities, our female member will work constantly with them to find out how we can improve our service and break the stereotype.
• High price is one of the main cause of women use unhygienic material during menstruation and women faces uncomfortable situation when they buy sanitary pad due to taboo and pads are not accessible in every place which makes them more vulnerable in physically and mentally.
• We are going to install Sanitary vending machine (manual/ automatic) in school, college, garments, offices and provide biodegradable sanitary pads at low cost (within 5 taka) to make pads accessible and affordable by every women.

At first, we will set up digital vending and disposal machine at different places such as School, colleges, Garments and other workplaces where there are considerable number of people are women. We will set up analog vending machine if electricity is unavailable. Also, we will provide sanitary pad at those vending machines which is very cheap and standard for girls and women.

Initially we will import biodegradable Sanitary pads from China as this type of product is unavailable in Bangladesh. Biodegradable pads are comfortable and safe because they protect women from infections and do not cause irritations. Existing sanitary pads contain chemicals, plastics, SAP, polymers, perfumes and other synthetic compounds which take several centuries to decompose. Biodegradable pads are an economical, healthier and ecological alternative. We will execute the project ensuring environmental sustainability. 

As menstruation lasts (4-7) days and needs up to 5 pads daily in a menstrual cycle so it’s a very basic and usual need what we are going to solve and it will easily make a link with us.

• There is no Such initiative that previously taken in Bangladesh which intends both installing vending machine and providing biodegradable sanitary pad at a low cost.
• By implementing this system, it will take less investment and can reach to large number of people and help within a very short time.
• We will implant both manual and automatic vending machine to serve both rural and urban area.

• As Bangladesh is a developing country and literacy rate is low women and girls faces various social taboo regarding buying and using sanitary pads which we are going to break by providing pads within their organization/office/institution.

• About 95% women don’t use sanitary pads and therefore there is a huge market and opportunity to implement this project. We must help them and make pads accessible in a low cost everywhere (educational institutions, workplaces, public toilets etc.)

• Health related problem due menstruation will be reduce and female students attendance rate in educational institution will increase.

• In many regions of India, they have implanted this vending machine project and they got huge positive feedback and it increases the health condition and increases the attendance rate of female students. Relevant links have been given below:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/jun/03/100-more-bihar-schools-to-emulate-successful-sanitary-pad-banks-1985485.html

https://www.thebetterindia.com/127272/bhopal-pad-vending-machine/

https://www.girlsglobe.org/2014/05/09/how-a-vending-machine-and-a-burner-changed-the-game-for-girls-in-india/?fbclid=IwAR3MLPra3O0VF9pImSylFrxcx-ezfpgt0rOllS0UyZXHkEF1r6fERp4FOdw

1. Our project is in concept level ,we didn't implement it yet.

2. We will be able to cover 50000-100000 women in one year. We will try to cover 100 institution within this time period.

3. Within 5 years our target is to serve 1 million women under this project.

Our goal is to serve every single women who are not getting access to buy and use sanitary napkin in their menstruation and any emergency situation.we will try to create a hassle-free, easy,cheap and accessible path towards sanitary napkin which leads to better hygiene and which ensure there physical and mental pressure.

1. Though at the initial stage we will need to import the biodegradable sanitary napkins that will cost high price but after some years, we will go for our own production by using local materials.
2. Spreading mass awareness to remove all the social misconceptions about menstruation and establishing the importance of using sanitary napkin is another challenge.
3. If we want to cover whole country with our service we will be needed lot of funding at initial stage.
4. As there have some cultural hesitation regarding menstruation it will take some times to break the taboo.

1. There are some companies in Bangladesh who are making pads at a low cost so we can collaborate or use their technology to create our own production.
2. We will promote sanitary napkin and have campaign to aware people.
3. We could get initial funding from Tiger IT Foundation and will get funding by crowd sourcing/donation or bank loan.
4. Over the time the taboo will be broken and we will just have to run our project.

Initially there are 6 people are in the solution team.

1. Sk. Maharul Islam

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

2. Monirul Islam

Graduated from Bangladesh University of Professionals

3. MD. Emon Rahman

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

4. Fatema Rahman

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

5. Tajbeul Ibn Mizan Ridoy

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

6. Parsha Sanjana

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

7. Tubaishi Sultana

Master's Student of Bangladesh University of Professionals

Our team consists of graduate from IR & Disaster and Human Security management who have proper knowledge and experience about public health and human security which is very much related to our solution. 

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1. We will try to find a sustained donations to run the project and achieve financial sustainability. The donation campaigns will be conducted in every month to raise funds.

2. The main revenue will be generating from the low profit of selling the pads. This is our product. This revenue will be used to ensure the continuation of the project, buying elements and providing salaries of the employees. As the beneficiary group is large enough, we can easily expect a good amount of revenue from a very low profit service.

• We are applying to get the initial funding from Tiger IT Foundation to initiate and establish our organization.
• This will provide us the opportunity to get the consultancy from different experts to nourish our concept and business model.
• This will provide us the linkage with MIT.