Menstrual hygiene : A cause with a business opportunity

The power of innumerable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from rural India can be leveraged as an attempt to shatter the social stigma surrounding menstrual hygiene. This will disrupt the menstrual hygiene industry by defining an entirely new supply chain and disintermediation of existing stakeholders.

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Menstruation is a hypersensitive issue enveloped by social stigma in the so called ‘modern India’. A natural bodily process involving severe pain that should be prudently handled to avoid health hazards is considered unclean, impure, inappropriate to talk about, etc. and ensued by discrimination. Consequently, the concept of hygiene is eclipsed by the shadows of menstrual taboo.

According to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) report, about 50% menstruating girls & women in India use cloth, and 15% use locally prepared napkins. This poses severe health hazards, loss of dignity, girls dropping out from schools due to absenteeism, etc. and a slow but certain threat to human life. This is supported by a 2019 report by the NGO Dasra, which found that 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to a lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities.

The larger prevalence of the menstrual hygiene stigma in rural India is a function of product accessibility, social construct and awareness. Accessibility is a major contributor because women in villages do not travel to adjoining towns for household shopping and are hesitant in asking their male counterparts to purchase sanitary napkins on their behalf. Additionally, the households in rural India hold the threat of being ousted from the village or community for non-abidance of particular societal beliefs. Lastly, the low awareness of potential health hazards from continued exposure to inappropriate methods of menstrual hygiene – starts with Urinary Tract Infections in the nascent stage climbing up the ladder of severity to Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases and Cervical Cancer alongside emotional stress.

Breaking bad: The role of MSMEs in shattering social stigma

The power of innumerable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from rural India can be leveraged as an attempt to shatter the social stigma surrounding menstrual hygiene. Indian villages are a tightly knit community with high quantum of internal interaction. The empowerment of MSMEs to produce low cost sanitary napkins within the village boundaries will bring the product closer to the target consumer. An increasing number of MSMEs that manufacture and sell menstrual hygiene products entering the rural market will thus, break the accessibility barrier.

The MSMEs can also provide menstrual hygiene education and program support to other village households raising awareness. This seems viable due to the distrust and repulsive emotion towards large private corporations being potential exploiters of the rural consumers. The incentivization of employment opportunities with slow and steadily increasing menstrual hygiene awareness will also overcome the societal disbeliefs.

The MSMEs require heavy advocacy and support from the government bringing menstrual hygiene into focus as a public problem. Various subsidies to MSMEs for material procurement and mass scale production of low cost sanitary napkins need to be rolled out. This not only safeguards product affordability but also ensures the financial sustenance of the MSMEs. In addition, government can launch rural national schemes for women communities to provide capital for setting up the production units and running awareness campaigns to falsify the presumed presence of harmful chemicals causing harm to reproductive system. The government should train the MSME workers to manufacture sanitary napkins as per the defined quality standards, that would equip the menstruating women to manage her cycle with dignity.

The famous example of Jayaashree Industries founded by Muruganantham and his wife in 2006 is a successful example that establishes the precedence for the MSME model discussed above. His machine that locally produces low cost sanitary napkins together with the involvement of women at every step of the value of the value chain was a turning point for his venture. The business faced challenges of keeping up with the demand, which can be effectively be resolved through establishment of multiple MSMEs supported by the government. The learnings from the success of this innovation serves as a proof of concept and paves the way for the large scale adoption of the MSME model across rural India.

To sum up, the proposed MSME solution will disrupt the menstrual hygiene industry by defining an entirely new supply chain and disintermediation of existing stakeholders. It eliminates the distrusted FMCG brands, distributors and shopkeepers bringing the manufacturer directly in contact with the rural consumer. The secondary issues of uncomfortable interaction at point of sale, high consumer hesitancy, gender barrier and opaque packaging are bound to be resolved through the MSME model. 

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Anuj Kapoor is a faculty in the marketing area at IIM Ahmedabad. Rahul Meena is a second year MBA student at IIM Ahmedabad.