 who have come up with an innovative solution in the form of 100% biodegradable menstrual management products to create sustainable menstrual health. Dear friends, welcome to another edition of Changemakers. We all understand the importance of menstrual health for women and adults and girls, which includes access to water, sanitation, hygiene facilities and affordable menstrual hygiene products. While access to safe and affordable sanitary material is crucial for reducing the risk of infections, the disposal of sanitary pads has become an environmental concern due to their non-biodegradable plastic content. Today we have the privilege of introducing innovators who have developed sanitary solutions that address these challenges. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Paritosh and Chitranshi. Their innovative creations not only provide a safe and affordable options, but are also biodegradable, minimizing the environmental impact. Let us hear more about their remarkable work and impact on women's lives. Welcome Paritosh Anand and Chitranshi Baranwal. Please introduce yourself and tell us brief about your innovation. Hello everyone, I am Chitranshi Baranwal, co-founder of Genie Pads. I am also a microbiologist and an author of Applied Microbiology Book. It's a book mainly for BSE nursing students and taught in various government organizations. And I have also next book in lined up which will be published in December this year. It's about genetics and pathology. Moreover, I also have five years of experience with different marketing consentances. Hello everyone, my name is Paritosh Anand and I am the co-founder of Genie Pads. Here we create sustainable menstrual health through our biodegradable products and services and raising the unrest and educating and spreading the awareness to the tribals and underprivileged. Prior to this, I have ten years of work experience in different industries like agribusiness, inology and education. I am also the peace ambassador at World Peace Tracts today from India. Thank you. Yeah, it's very impressive. Both are knowledgeable and have experience in the product you are working on. What problem are you addressing through your innovation? Please elaborate on that. So we have started our primary research in 2020 and what we found that three major problems are there in this industry. The first one is affordability, second one is accessibility and third one is the awareness and about the pads, about the menstruation, about the periods and which kind of pads are available commercially in the market. So we are bringing in a solution which is not only affordable but also truly biodegradable. The products are and we are offering the service which is unique and we are trying to tap those markets. We are trying to help those people in the society who are actually on this right now. We are going to the tribals. We are going to the underprivileged and make them understand. We are going to the orphanages. We are going to the jails and make them understand about what sustainable menstrual health is all about. What was your source of motivation for making this product and where did it all start? Personally, I have been in contact with a lot of women who have no or very less idea about menstruation. For them period is just five days of menstruation like having cramps and bleeding that's it. For me menstruation is just not about bleeding. I believe that we have to take care of ourselves because menstruation also affects our mental health and physical health as well. And furthermore personally I have been gone through a lot of problems like rashes and infections and when I researched about it I got to know they are just because of the pads I have been using which was a plastic based and had toxins in it. So thoroughly I thought to create a biodegradable truly biodegradable sanitary napkins which will be made of any ingredient which is a procure from the nature and it will not only help for the environment but also helpful for my skin as well. Really it is like well spoken about the problem you have faced it. This question is specifically for Paritosh. How did you get an idea of working on something like this which is very women centric? Was it just a business idea for you or you have some story attached to it? I would like to extend the answer of Chitraansi when I was working with in agriculture I have seen three women of the same family using the same cloth not even cloth pad for their menstrual management and that was like a kick for me and that time I thought can I contribute in this segment in this industry why they have to do this and if even if you are using the cloth pad usable cloth pads are available in the market today so if you are using it it must have been truly sun dried after the use and in villages I have seen they are not even sun drying it they are drying under the cloths bigger clothes so again it is of no use so that was one incident which brought me in this industry because prior to this I had no idea about what scientific pad is I have not just a single scientific pad before that so it is not just the business idea of course we are now developing a different class different reach out plans how to affect the life how to impact the life of rural women and girls of course but that time it was not a business idea when we have started it we have started you know to help the society and we are doing it as of now yeah great Paritosh you are trying to upgrade the hygiene level for the rural and tribal area of people so now my next question is for Chitran Sri please tell us how has the response been so far from women who have used your product during our early phases we did try a lot of prototypes and we did receive a lot of negative feedbacks and criticisms but our team positively took it and we tried to focus on each feedback and tried to make every product better day by day our main concern is always to minimize the issues that a female is experiencing during her menstruation and I am happy to say that our genie pad is expanding and minimizing all the feedbacks with amazing feedbacks again and our products also allow our customers to experience the adoreless comfortable and rashes free infection free experience and it's a good news for us is that we have recently launched our 100% bamboo fiber pads and it's receiving good feedbacks and we got patent of it as well great Chitran Sri congratulations it's good to know that you have upgraded your product by negative feedback and you are encouraged by the positive feedback from users now congratulations and Parithosh can you tell me the challenges in this journey and how you overcame those challenges the first challenges in this journey being a man high phase personally getting a tag of perverted if you go and ask to a person that which pad you are using or are you a pad user or tampon user or computer people are not still ready to talk about it we are encouraging girls to talk about periods to their father to their brother so the first point we have we felt that communication is not synchronized end to end second challenge is the customers have accepted that rashes are the byproducts of the menstruation it is not we are here to break that myth that wide asses happens every customer we have met it every girl we have met it and discussed about periods and she told she has breast races so our question to her every time that why and she was not knowing so we tried to make them understand why it happens and how it can be controlled so communication second is a challenges second challenge we have faced that people are not ready to specifically in the rural area what we have seen people are not even try to try pads they are not giving it a try they are if they are happy with the clothes they are happy with the clothes so we are also breaking the mentality we are also bringing them on a scientifically scientific way of menstruation management not the traditional one so these are a few challenges we see first you have faced a lot of challenges and it good to know that you have overcome the challenge and you have released the product as well recently we have seen many similar innovations when it comes to menstrual hygiene so Pratosh I would like to know this from you that how is your innovation is unique from all the others true very true a lot of startups are coming in this industry but if you look at the statistics you will find right now around 355 million women and girls are menstruating in India right now when we are talking about it so and out of 355 million women only 42 percent have access to any kind of menstrual management products any kind state curbs disc tampons pads whatever we still have a full gap of 60 58 to 60 percent who have not access to this so if I can say if any 500 startups comes forward we are not able to suffice the demand and in 355 million women 42 percent who are using the pads they are out of that 99 percent women are using plastic pads so can you just imagine the mountain of the used pads we differentiate ourselves on many points first point is we we are not just saying that we are biodegradable we got patent for it so we are truly biodegradable degradable pads second we are affordable we are making biodegradable pads more cheaper than the plastic pads every pad you see right now in the market contains plastic equivalent to at least 4 to 5 plastic container that Trana Vallabhaya gives you consider the amount of dioxin you are using for a straight five days of 30 years of your life so we are differentiating on that part of course price point is need to be considered but I don't want to play on that but we are trying to keep it as low as possible and we are going extra mile how we are adopting villages we are adopting schools we go there with the with our gynecologist we counsel the girls who are in the monarch who are 13 14 or who are just will having the periods 10 to 12 14 years old age girls so we are trying to tap that market also we are not only in urban sector plus we are providing 100% customization like in five days of periods every day you need a different kind of pad depending upon the flow of the blood so what we are telling that go to our website make your own product of course with answer we'll talk about it more but just I'm giving you the hint and you can make your own menstrual kit and you you can then subscribe it so again it will be will be valid friendly like if you go to swap and say I need two pads of double XL they will not give you I am giving you and taking the charge of two pads only so we are giving you the full right that what you need make your own product with us great it's very sad to know that like 60% of the women do not have access to hygiene product and you have come up with the biodegradable solution and you are into awareness also creating awareness and it's good to know that genie pad is truly customizable and by this way it is unique and distinct from other innovations in the market Chitran she please tell us how do you ensure that your product meets quality standards um initially each batch of pad is gone through a rigorous testing of absorbency because what I feel if I would be a customer of genie pad I would expect the leakage issue should not be there so leakage is the main issue with which we test primarily apart from that the stickiness of the pad and then effects how it feels on the skin and the most important thing is microbial contamination should not be there so we thoroughly sterilize it moreover each ingredient of the product is nabial tested then our product is manufactured through cold sealing process so I know I'm throwing all the alien terms here so I'll explain what cold sealing process is it's a process that includes two types of dyes that helps in sealing and shaping the sanitary pad and it also helps to remove the sharp edges of the pad and make it more comfortable and hygienic for the skin moreover yeah this is we protocols are all followed to make it the high standards of the product and perfect to use it's good to know that you are all committed to maintaining the high quality standards uh Chitanshi please tell us how cost effective and readily available is your product to the end user uh so being a biodegradable pad uh genie pads are very affordable I got in comparison to the other products that are available in the market and claim to be biodegradable because we have to procure all the material from the environment and it does cost us so but you know the competitors that claim the per pad is of 23 rupees and what genie pads is providing it ranges from 10 to 15 rupees so it does reduce your cost and as Paritosh explained the concept of red kit we are introducing here customization is offered where you can take any number or any quantity of size of your pad like four pads of night pads then four of large pads that will be used for days and then two panty liners it depends on you what you want then uh genie pads also doing something different like goodies if you have a goodie section for the red kit where you can choose anything like disposable bags intimate wipes sanitizer which is a ph friendly for the vaginal area and as I said bleeding menstruation is just not about bleeding it affects your mental and physical health so uh cramps and mood swings all are catered by these uh chocolate dark chocolates we are offering then scented candles and biodegradable bookmarks whatever you need in it all the goodies are available here and whatever item you choose for yourself you have to just pay for them you don't have to pay for the whole packet of a pad that available in the market so and as the reachability how they can reach to us so we are available on the website or we have genie pads dot in that's our website we are available on all the e-commerce sites apart from that we have a community genie community we are available on instagram facebook linkedin also so uh they anyone can reach out to us they can DM us on the social networking sites or directly contact on the website as well so easily they can contact us it's interesting it is cost effective and also easily accessible for the end users and you have good marketing strategy to give out the other products as well uh paritosh have you received support from other sources as well uh financial or any other support can you please elaborate yes uh we are incubated at 3 3 university in odisha and under their mentorship we can say we have been able to raise funds from startup india we have been able to raise funds from nrc natural research and development corporation they are helping us out in terms of funding i'm telling you first and we are also in the talks with various angel investors for the funding part second is mentorship part so we have various mentors who are working on a state level or country level various mentors of us are international level work working there a few seniors from i am hudabad ceo of cc university they all are our mentors plus uh i have also went to i am hudabad so that one year helped me to understand myself on a better level to understand my startup my business on a better level the main point the main purpose going to i am hudabad was the challenges i was facing earlier would not be there and it is rightly fulfilled so i am thankful to everyone our mentors our funders our my i am professors for embarking me on on this journey for imparting their knowledge and providing the handhold support we needed it really impressed by the support received from various uh sources as well as the mentoring support you to sit from your faculty members and other others so if you have to give a one piece of advice to the youngsters who are thinking of starting a venture what would that be uh paritosh i would just give one piece of advice that focus on the product or services you are making is actually solving its purpose or not like in our industry if i will give you or even anyone anyone will give you a bad and tell you to use it and if it will leak will you use it another time no no matter who is giving you so solving the purpose is the main issue right now what happens in this startup ecosystem rather than focusing on creating a hike on social media and everything a light focusing on creating the best product will help any startup to get into the market and focusing on the right need of the customer is the key i guess creating the product which solves its purpose is the main thing so if anyone is coming into this industry or any any industry or making an app or doing anything is it solving the actual problem of the of the customers or not that's great paritosh you are saying that just don't create the product and create the product which solves customers problem very inspiring and wise advice for young entrepreneurs chitrin chi what plans do we have for future of the business as of now we are only focusing on the on creating sustainable menstrual health through which we are trying to reach the unreached woman which are the ruler woman and the youngsters young generation which have just started bleeding so you know they are the minnaks and they need guidance regarding their health and hygiene of course so we are trying to reach them guide them and educate them through our education and awareness campaigns because you know it's better to know about your body before and instead of believing on myths and having doubts so we are also trying to reach at least five million women in next five years and targeting and aiming for like 25 percent of women in next five years and great it's really excited to know about your future plan and you are focusing on creating the awareness first that's really interesting do you have a vision for the betterment of our country through this innovation of yours paritosh yes so just few days back I was reading a report of Morgana Stanley and it was the report on how India changes in past 10 years so time is changing we as a society is evolving every day we are becoming a smart as a society even as an individual even at genie pads we are working on a sensitive issue which is being generally ignored so we we focus on we envision an India where each of the woman takes care of her menstrual well health more diligently and talk about it more openly within your family friends and surroundings we envision a India a taboo free society and for that we are working towards it we are working to make it happen you both are sincerely appreciative for being a visionary and demonstrating and wavering dedication towards making a positive impact in the country we are also very thankful to the ICT you know which one cell we we met and a representative of the ICT you know which one cell at G20 and from there we got the mentorship and in their mentorship we also attended national technology week event under the ICT pavilion and we are very very much thankful to the ICT you know which one cell depends on which one cell everyone Shivani and the whole team the whole product contain you ma'am for giving us the chance to showcase our products our ideas to the people and to helping us to reach the objective we have in the mind so in behalf of Gini family I would like to thank you so much thank you Paritosh thank you everyone for bringing us till here and supporting us for this thank you the team thank you Chitranjee thank you both of you for joining with us so that's all we have in this edition but we will be back with some more insightful discussions and many such breakthrough innovations in the coming episodes till then keep watching for the space thank you