Arunachal: Sanitary pad Manufacturing unit by SHGs inaugurated at Namsai
NAMSAI: A sanitary pad manufacturing unit at Aalubari, Namsai inaugurated on Thursday by Partho Saha, General Manager, NABARD in presence of DDM NABARD, Kamal Roy and BMM, ArSRLM Ms Juspin Karketa.
Bandhan SHG will run the unit which was promoted by ArSRLM. The project was implemented by NABFOUNDATION under “MY PAD. MY RIGHT” programme funded by NABARD.
“MY PAD. MY RIGHT.” encourages rural women to turn menstrual hygiene into a livelihood opportunity by taking up Sanitary Napkin Manufacturing as a livelihood project at their own level. The decentralized model will enable women to access pads locally within the comfortable environment of other women.
The project puts utmost emphasis on enhancing rural women’s knowledge and skills in hygiene-related aspects, sanitary napkin production and related business activities. A 3-stage capacity building programme has been designed for SHG women and upskill them to become entrepreneurs.
It will equip them to undertake the production process and manage business operations which will directly impact their negotiation, management skills building capabilities in the process. Along with this, the project aims to bring financial stability in the form of encouraging financial tie-ups with banks for working capital from the very beginning.
GM NABARD Partho Saha said that this initiative of producing sanitary pads at the local level by women of SHG is laudable. He urged the village women to save every month keeping in mind their health and buy sanitary pads. In rural areas, women do a lot of work from home, farming and livelihood. Change must come with time. Construction of pads at the local level by the women’s group will make the pads available to the rural women at a reasonable cost. At the same time, the women of the group got livelihood. He said that there is a need to give information regarding the use of sanitary pads to teenage girls and women during the period.
DDM NABARD Kamal Roy said that “MY PAD. MY RIGHT.” is a dream project and Bandhan SHG has been selected by looking at its interest and work by ArSRLM. He informed that for this, pad production machine and two months’ raw material group have been given free of cost. The amount of 3 workers will also be given daily for 50 days. Through this, awareness will be given about cleanliness in women and employment will be available to women SHG.
