Our Founder Directors Bhuvana Ramalingam & Radha Kumar visited Aakar Innovation from where we are sourcing our biodegradable sanitary pads for our Project Swasthya.
Ms. Sharmila Mandal was very kind to share their story and explain the entire process of how these pads are created.
Aakar is a social enterprise started by 33-year-old Jaydeep Mandal in the year 2011, in Belapur, Maharashtra. Aakar manufactures indigenous machines which enable women to produce affordable, high-quality 100% compostable sanitary napkins, targeted toward rural and semi-urban women branded as “Anandi pads”. Aakar uses a franchisee model and has 40 women-supervised mini-factories run profitably by self-help groups, individual entrepreneurs, and organizations supported by corporate CSRs, or state governments providing a livelihood for 500 women, across 14 states.
BFL is proud to associate with Aakar Innovations. We had a fruitful meeting discussing future ideas on collaboration and reaching out to the rural populations and as well as educating the significance of Menstrual Hygiene as this significantly impacts the further milestones in a girl’s life like pregnancy and then Menopause phase etc.