In India, nine out of 10 women do not use sanitary pads because of cost and unavailability; they use old rags, plastics, sand and ash instead, said Jaydeep Mandal, founder and managing director of Aakar Innovations Private limited while interacting with the students of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Raipur on Monday.
Students of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Raipur learn about ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ from Ranganayakulu Bodavala, founder president of ‘THRIVE’ and Jaydeep Mandal in a guest lecture session organised by the institute.
Mandal said that poor health and hygiene conditions cause girls to drop out of school and women to miss work. He spoke about how his NGO has come up with ‘Anandi’, an affordable, comfortable and 100 per cent compostable sanitary napkin that can be produced in small, women-owned, energy-efficient, mini-factory set up in the village or slum.
He encouraged the students to opt for social entrepreneurship as a career option to empower and improve the living standard of underprivileged. Mandal explained the students how Aakar Innovations was helping women through innovations with an affordable, high-quality, compostable, sanitary pad.
Bodavala, a Harvard alumnus, began the session with an introduction to his NGO ‘THRIVE’ and the way it works towards benefiting rural and tribal communities in home lighting, ICT, education and health using advanced and innovative technologies. He gave an overview of the innovative solutions devised by ‘THRIVE’ for the night study needs of the children located in rural, semi-urban and off-grid geographies of the world using TET’s Accendo Study light.
He also discussed about his mission ‘One Child One light’ to ensure that every needy child in the developing nation has light to study.
He elaborated on the vitality of the solid state lighting (lED based) products and solar based power systems and how they could be effectively used to provide clean lighting, reduce carbon emissions and assure higher levels of productivity in rural and urban vocations.