CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, March 11: Not many would dare to quit a high paid corporate job and do something that would bring a change in the society. Vanya Vatsal from Ranchi dared to do that. She along with her friend Gunjan Gaurav, left their respected jobs and started making organic sanitary pads and formed a company named ‘Ilaaria’.
The main motive behind starting this was to break the stereotypes regarding menstruation in India. Vanya spoke to Lagatar24.com and said how their sanitary pads are different from others.
“Our sanitary napkins are biodegradable in nature. The sanitary napkins which are available in the market have quite a lot of plastics in them which cause rashes and irritations. The plastic present takes around 400-800 years to decompose whereas ours take 6-8 months to decompose,” she said.
They decided to end the stereotypes of how people treat the buying process of sanitary pads in India so they made the packaging more pretty and attractive along with a handle on top of the boxes.
“I always wanted to do something different since I was a kid and even after I got placed after IIM, I wanted to do something that would bring a change in the society. The Idea about this came to me because I have faced such issues in public when it comes to menstruation. Despite being around an intellectual crowd I faced problems,” she explained.
The product is manufactured in Delhi whereas the packaging is done in Ranchi. Therefore, the price of the product is on a higher side.
“Considering that our product is biodegradable, the price of the material itself becomes very high. The regular pads prices start from Rs. 28 for 6 pads and goes upto Rs. 350-400 for 10 pads whereas ours starts from Rs. 100. We have different varieties,” Vanya stated.
They are also making sanitary pads for rural women as menstruation is a concerning issue in rural areas. These are generic pads with no branding and they supply it to beauty parlors which are nearest to the rural areas.
The pads are available on e-commerce sites such as flipkart and are available all across India whereas in Jharkhand it is also available in many offline stores. Vanya added that apart from sanitary pads they are also planning to make tampons and menstrual cups but also feels that women need proper education before using these products.
“We started ‘Ilaaria’ to break stereotypes and taboo, so the products we have in our pipeline which will be out in the coming years will all have to do with breaking the taboo or removing the stereotypes in the society,” she concluded.
