Behen -- Changing the narrative

Over 144 million women and girls in India don’t have access to quality feminine hygiene products.

Over a fourth of them report skipping school during their periods which causes a harmful cycle of illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty. 

Some women use unhealthy and unhygienic alternatives like leaves, dirty rags, and even, cow dung.

Our solution is to sell reusable menstrual underwear in India using a 1:1 model (like Toms shoes) -- for every underwear purchased, we’ll donate one to a woman who cannot afford it herself. Our work directly relates to 3 SDGs -- gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and environmental consciousness. 

At a global scale, we dream of a world where no woman should have to give up on her dreams because of her periods. Ultimately, we are creating a reliable and replicable framework that can be implemented across the world.

In India alone, over 144 million women don’t have access to quality feminine hygiene products due to cultural, distributional, and financial barriers. At a global scale, this number grows to exponential levels. 

However, most current efforts focus on providing plastic pads and tampons to these women. It is crucial to foresee the environmental impact of such campaigns.

Each plastic pad has a half life of 110 years. Over a billion of such pads end up in landfills each year in India. Within this context, Behen aims to revolutionize the menstrual product market and life cycle in emerging economies. 

As the winner of the UN Youth Assembly Impact Challenge last year, I met many young women from countries like Nigeria and Sierra Leone, who wanted to help out with Behen’s operations and partner with us to expand the project.

To them, Behen represents a revolution. 

In this way, we use the circular economy concept to change lives while promoting sustainability.

Our target population, within the context of the business model, is two-fold. Our product is primarily marketed to urban middle-class Indian women who are able and willing to pay for a high quality product. 

A one-for-one model helps us reach the second target population -- rural and/or impoverished women. For every pair of underwear sold, we’ll give one to a woman who can’t afford it herself. 

To test our solution, we conducted market research through phone calls, surveys, and interviews. 

We found that almost 94 percent of our respondents use sanitary napkins while only 4-6 percent use tampons or menstrual cups. 

The unique value in our idea is its cultural adaptability. Initial market research shows that Indian women are uncomfortable using tampons/menstrual cups because they require insertion. However, most women already own underwear -- buying one for their period isn't as alien to them as buying a box of tampons. 

Specifically at a community scale, we hire women from local domestic violence shelters to assemble and package our product. This strong tie with women from the area allows community-based marketing and promotion as well as allows us to better understand the needs of the women we serve.

Our solution involves a business model as well as the sale of a specific product, that is, menstrual underwear. We use textile technology including anti-bacterial treatment and are currently conducting research and development to ensure better reusability. 

With respect to technology that promotes the circular economy, our idea relates to a certain challenge that is outside the purview of current efforts. We hope that curbing the level of waste generated by period products will help reduce the number of landfills across the world.

For the specific design of the product, we intend to utilize absorbent and efficient textiles to create customizable underwear kits with different colors and styles, including an optional attachment for heavy flow days. This addresses key drawbacks of plastic disposable pads (rashes) as well as organic/reusable pads (slipping out of position), therefore increasing comfort levels. 

In addition, we reinvest in the women we hire by educating and empowering them. Our women’s centres will provide resources, vocational training courses like language instruction, coding classes and medicinal care training. Ultimately, we intend to set up a charity fund for our NGO partners and donate 5% of our profits to them.