Anti-Bacterial Sanitary Napkin Using Biomaterial Application

Abstract

On an average a woman uses 15000 pads through her lifetime while menstruation. A packet of sanitary napkins comprising of usually 8 or 10 napkins in India will cost you nearly 28 to 150 Indian rupees. The price might seem reasonable but actually using these napkins per month every women needs at least 3 packets of these sanitary napkins that will cost around 300 rupees per month and due to poverty in India some women in rural areas or who are poor prefer to use old cloth as a sanitary napkin during their periods because they can’t afford sanitary napkins per month due to unemployment and this is the reason for their poor personal hygiene and infections [5][10]. The women has to change their sanitary napkins after every 3-4 hours but due to busy schedule of working women whether in corporate world or household ladies forget to change their napkins due to work load and this leads to the infections and also cancers and cysts. The unemployment rate in India has increased and according to international labour organisation the unemployment rate is 3.5% and 70.62 million people live under extreme poverty with less than 133.99 rupees per day and due to this reason, the cost of sanitary napkin is often unattainable. The government and other NGOS have been providing free pads to school girls and rural women. In India it has been anticipated that 1 out of 5 girls drop out of school when they start menstruating [11]. ‘Period Poverty’ is the term used when there is lack of sanitary products, and other essentials like toilets due to financial constraints in region.According to statistics, 60 percent of adolescent girls miss school due to their periods, and about 80 percent still use homemade pads. In addition, 12 percent of India's 355 million menstruating women use pads (sanitary napkins), and 88 percent use unsanitized cloth fabric, ashes, and dry leaves, posing a wide range of health risks. In India, numerous types of terrible menstruation hygiene conditions are responsible for 70% of all reproductive illnesses and disorders. According to the researchers, 71 percent of females are unaware of period hygiene until after their first period.This research therefore estimated the utility of developing the highly absorbent, biodegradable and antibacterial sanitary pads form banana fibre and neem as an antibacterial agent. This modification in sanitary napkins would bring about the development of economical quality pad that would allow poor school girls to attend their schools without interruption and also help the women to maintain a better hygiene and prevent them from reproductive diseases.