SCWEC Nepal, a chamber of women entrepreneurs from SAARC nations, launched a biodegradable sanitary pads ‘Aba Dhukka’ on Sept 10. Sarojini Serchan, Vice-chairperson of the organization welcomed the participants at the product-launch event. “The main aim of SCWEC Nepal is to empower women through education and entrepreneurship,” she said. “Our motto is to provide made-in-Nepal sanitary pads to each female student.” Informing about the project, past Vice-chairperson of SCWEC Nepal said that the team were invited by Sri Lanka in 2019 where they saw the production of biodegradable sanitary pads. “This project from SCWEC Sri Lanka inspired us to start the same in Nepal,” she said. “We are soon heading to manufacture 100 percent compost sanitary pads.”

Julia Chitrakar, coordinator of ‘Aba Dhukka’ project explained the journey. “Through many ups and downs, we are able to launch our product in three years,” she said. She also assured that the product will soon be available in the market on a large scale. “We had started manufacturing pads three years ago by a machine made in Nepal by Nepali engineers,” she said, “But due to some issues in the machine, we had to buy it that delayed the launch of the sanitary pads.” Covid-19 pandemic also played its part.

The project aims to engage women from all the provinces in entrepreneurship. According to the data of the Customs Department, Nepal has imported sanitary pads worth Rs 1bn in the last fiscal year. The project also aims to reduce the import of pads. SCWEC Nepal trained two women with disabilities, Shristi Shrestha and Sikha Pradhan. And both of them are in charge of manufacturing the sanitary pads. Ram Chandra Tiwari, director general of Department of Industries wished for a better future of the project and assured the team to help whenever they ask for.