Twelve women who call their sanitary pad company Mukti, now have a respectable way of making a living free of abuse.
Vulnerable women from the city's red light district have gained refuge making biodegradable sanitary pads. Mukti which means liberation in "Sanskrit” is designed to empower women to empower others.
The Project
The Mukti pad company provides an income to women who deal with the cruel life in the red light district. Pads are provided to vulnerable girls to enable them to stay in school through a sponsorship program.
The Challenges Girls and Women Face
After menstruation begins, girls are most vulnerable to drop out of school and be forced into slavery or child marriage. The stigma around menstruation adversely affects those who live in extreme poverty and in communities with crippling gender inequality.
When a girl starts menstruating, without supplies, she misses crucial learning days, often a week per month. This results in doing poorly on exams, often dropping out of school and forced into marriage or prostitution.
Why this solution
Girls living in poverty cannot afford menstrual protection and often use rags to manage their periods. Using cloth requires clean water, soap and privacy to dry. Damp rags harbor bacteria and result in an increased risk of fungal and bacterial infections and urinary and reproductive tract diseases.
The Next Phase
With your help Mukti hopes to liberate 15 more women. We are establishing a Bicycle Sales force. The women are selected by Urmi Basu of New Light with special consideration to mothers living in the red light district. This program will loan bicycles, provide 6 months of stock, and provide ongoing counseling, and training in business and marketing.
The pads are provided as a micro-loan to be paid back over time and will support the purchasing of pads for vulnerable girls. Bicycles with baskets allow women to travel further and carry more safely.