market study in the context of menstruation is given in Exhibit 6.
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
According to findings of the latest study“ Sanitary Protection: Every Woman ' s Health Right” undertaken by AC Neilson in 2010, the biggest barrier to use sanitary napkins was affordability. Around 70 % of the women in India complained that their family could not afford to buy them. The same was reviewed and endorsed by Community Development Organization Plan India. Bhagyashree Dengle, executive director, Plan India said,
“ This study reveals the dismal state of feminine hygiene care in India and shows rampant unhygienic sanitary practices. In comparison, 100 % women in Singapore and Japan, 88 % in Indonesia and 64 % in China use sanitary napkins."
As already stated earlier, only 12 % of India ' s 355 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins( SN). Others resort to alternatives such as cloth, ash and husk sand. This compared to the 96 % rate seen in developed countries, like the United States, and India ' s statistic seems pitiful. Incidents of Reproductive tract infections( RTI) are 70 % more common among these women. Inadequate menstrual protection causes girls aged 12 to 18 to miss around 5 days of school per month, or approximately 50 school days per year. Even more startling is that around 23 % of the girls drop out of school once they start menstruating.
On 15th June 2010, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry approved a scheme for providing highly subsidized sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in the rural areas to promote menstrual hygiene. The scheme was to be launched in 150 districts across the country in the first phase. Approved by the Mission Steering Group, the highest decision-making body of the National Rural Health Mission, the scheme envisaged covering 1.5 crore girls in the age group of 10-19 years every month. Of this, the approximate number of Above Poverty Line( APL) girls is 105 lakh while that of the Below Poverty Line( BPL) category is 45 lakh. The napkins would be supplied to the BPL girls at a nominal cost of Rs. 1 per pack of six while the APL girls will have to pay Rs. 5 per pack.
A. Muruganantham had created a sanitary napkin making machine that operates on a small scale. Contrary to a large-scale production model which requires Rs. 3.5 crores as initial investment, Muruganantham ' s sanitary napkin making machine could be made available to a buyer for approximately Rs. 75,000. This allowed smaller players to adopt the business model of producing and selling sanitary napkin especially in the rural areas.
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT Bhokardan is a multi-religious taluka with 125 villages.
Gram Panchayat headed by the Sarpanch is the decision making body in these villages and forms the political environment of the village. Mr. Jayant, based on his past experience in implementing projects in rural India, knew that the Panchayat committee would be neutral to any project being implemented in the village. It neither supported nor criticized such projects being implemented by the NGO ' s. When it was decided that Kedarkheda was chosen for analyzing the feasibility of setting up a sanitary napkin production unit, the Gram Panchayat readily allowed SACRED to use a two room facility for the production unit. However, any Panchayat committee usually got ridden with internal politics which thus hampered the prospects of the village.
CONSUMER MARKET Sanitary Napkin Awareness Feminine care was introduced globally over 100 years ago. India claims the lowest usage of feminine hygiene products in the world.
Feminine hygiene products can be defined as“ hygiene absorbent products engineered to absorb and retain body fluid without causing any leakage. The user should always feel dry and comfortable. It consists of an absorbent pad sandwiched between two sheets of nonwoven fabric.” There are 3 major types of products,( a) Thick sanitary napkins.( b) Ultra thin sanitary napkins.( c) Panty liners being used in the market. The size of each and their content vary from market to market.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER MARKET
A survey carried out by leading global information and measurement company AC Nielsen revealed the dismal state of feminine hygiene care in India. The penetration of sanitary napkins in India has been extremely low and there has been tremendous potential for players to gain decent market share. Urban women make up 20 % of the country ' s sanitary napkin market. In 2008, there were 96 million women in urban India and, at that time, it was projected that number would increase by 17 % to 1.2 billion women in 2013. With this predicted population growth, the sanitary napkin market could potentially be valued at as much as USD $ 365m in 2013, up from US $ 166.1m in 2008. Currently it is estimated to be worth around USD $ 270m.
Some key highlights of the survey were:
ü 75 percent rural women lacked adequate knowledge on menstrual hygiene and care
ü 81 percent rural women used unsterilized cloths since they are cheaper
ü 68 per cent could not afford to buy sanitary napkins available in the market.
ü Adolescent girls in rural India were unable to attend up
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