Project Baala

The Elevate Prize can play a crucial role in expanding and growing our current operations, as well as scaling our pilot livelihood model. The prize offers mentorship, funding and fellowship networks, the combination of which can translate into tangible impact. “Coaching is not fairly implemented without funding, funding isn’t efficiently used without mentorship and a network is not optimally utilized without entrepreneurial growth.” 

The Elevate Prize will provide us with a powerful platform to mobilize communities and catalyze positive change. The strategic marketing and media expertise can help Baala and the founders become social influencers which can help us scale our impact exponentially. The mentoring support will play a crucial role for Project Baala with the launch of our new rural sales network and working towards diversification in products with the help of industry experts. Last but not the least, the Elevate Prize will help us network to a radically diverse group of people from various innovative organizations which will help us learn and grow together. 

Baala envisions a world where menstruators everywhere have an agency over their body, education and career, where their decisions are not limited to the choice of menstrual absorbent or lack thereof. We enable menstruators to continue their education, understand their body and join the workforce with dignity.

Baala aims to bring systemic reforms which will provide menstruators with access to sustainable & affordable menstrual absorbents, awareness modules & livelihood generation. We work with young as well as older menstruators in communities to reduce the intergenerational mindset gap.

Our aim in next 5 years is to:

1. Impact the lives of 1M menstruators by helping them make the switch to sustainable menstrual absorbents, create awareness & generate livelihood. Currently we are working with 225,000 beneficiaries out of which 10% of them are in constant contact with us which help us create tailored solutions. 

2. Create a network of 5000 village-level women entrepreneurs to build a sustainable model for women to earn their livelihood by being spokespeople and salespeople of our sustainable products and awareness modules.

3. To achieve the goal of reaching 1M beneficiaries by integrating better systems in our supply chain through onboarding the right partners and stakeholders.

In a country of 400 million menstruating women:

1. 40,000 women lose their lives to poor menstrual hygiene annually. 

2. 23 million girls drop out of school every year. 

3. Only 48% of the rural Indian population has access to safe menstrual protection.

India is at an important juncture in providing accessible menstrual facilities to all. While access is marginally being taken care of through free distribution of low-quality products under government schemes, we are ignoring the repercussion of getting an entire generation onto non-biodegradable absorbents, while also hampering their health due to the inferior quality of such products. 

For Baala, the product is at the heart of the effort. An affordable absorbent that can be reused for up to two years is revolutionary. In one go, it addresses the key issues of affordability, convenience and continued access. However, access to products without access to information is not a sustainable intervention. Baala is not only about creating awareness, but also lasting habits. We have developed a module that is built to systematically shift knowledge, attitude and practices around menstruation and make menstruators better informed and equipped.

Baala believes menstrual hygiene is the undervalued stock of the development sector. It has potential to reap quadruple dividends of improved health, education, empowerment & environmental outcomes. 

Baala’s USP lies in the fact that we offer a comprehensive solution that produces and scales outcomes at all levels of the value chain.

1. Almost 70% of India’s population lives in villages whereas the current market for reusable napkins is primarily focused on urban buyers. Baala’s intervention solely targets rural masses.

2. Other reusable pad manufacturers focus on sterilization and reusing clothes. We constantly work towards product innovation & enhancement for which we have partnered with Swedish & American scientists to develop a hydrophobic menstrual pad that can last up to 5 years, can be washed and dried in just 5 mins. 

3. We work towards both demand & supply of the problem by manufacturing sustainable menstrual absorbent & creating awareness around the need of sustainable absorbents 

4. Our commitment towards a sustainable model has taken our solution one step forward. We have set up a system to employ village-level women entrepreneurs who are spokespeople & salespeople of Baala and are able to generate livelihood for themselves. We launched our pilot in Rajasthan in April 2021.

We have categorized our efforts in 3 broad categories:

1. Impactful Partnerships: 

We work towards building meaningful partnerships with government agencies, and advocacy groups working towards women empowerment. These partnerships enable us to scale our impact & increase reach to the last mile. 

2. Onboarding Experts: 

Our efforts have been appreciated by industry experts and we have formed a multi-talented Advisory Board consisting of a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company last mile rural sales, chairperson of a New Delhi based school & Policy Manager of WaterAid India. Through their guidance, we have done extensive work with semi-urban schools and also upgraded our product range and manufacturing.

3. Constant Product Innovation: 

The cornerstone of our solution is the integration of feedback to innovate our product. We partnered with scientists from the USA & Sweden to upgrade our pads. We are also introducing a line of low-cost biodegradable disposable pads to cater to regions with low water availability.

The one thing that ties all our efforts is our promise to keep the community at the center of every decision. We are building a sustainable model which caters to any menstrual hygiene-related need that our targeted communities may have.