Azadpur in North Delhi is known for its fresh fruit and vegetable market. But in a small room in the locality’s community centre, tucked between the narrow lanes, 50 women are engaged in a very different practice: making and selling menstrual products.
From Monday to Saturday, the women work on sewing machines to make single-use and reusable pads as well as menstrual cups under the supervision of Neelam, their trainer. “I train the women to make the pads with rough cloth pieces. Then they move on to the products,” she says. “I can now make 80-90 pads in a day,” says Sandhya Suryavanshi, one of the product-makers.
“The products are sold under the brand name Rakshak at nominal prices—for instance, a pack of eight single-use pads sells for R50. The women earn Rs 8,000-10,000 a month,” says Neelam, who has been engaged in pad-making for over a decade. “I learned how to make them on my own and used to distribute them from my house. Then I joined this centre,” she says.
Opened eight years ago by Vyomini Social Foundation, a Delhi-based non-profit, this centre has two goals: to provide women affordable menstrual hygiene products, and to make them aware of safe menstrual health practices. The latter is particularly important, says Prachi Kaushik, founder of the non-profit. “Even today, some women avoid wearing undergarments at all except during the five days that they are menstruating. Such practices do not stem from a lack of money, but from a lack of awareness,” says Kaushik, who started the non-profit in 2017, after working with the Delhi government’s Department of Women and Child Development.
Among the three products that the centre makes and sells, there is a greater emphasis on reusable pads as they are a more practical and economical option—each costs Rs 50 and can be used for up to two years. They are made in two colours, bright pink and powder blue, Kaushik says. They are made of materials like fleece and flannel sourced from a vendor in Ludhiana, with the last layer being leak- and water-proof. Once the pads are ready, they are mass washed and machine dried before being packed. “This pad is easy to use. A single Rakshak pad can be used for two or three days before wash,” says Neelam. “But it has to be washed thoroughly after use, first washed in cold water, then soaked in detergent and dried fully. This can be challenging where water availability is a problem, like in Azadpur itself, where the resource goes scarce during the summer. But since the pads are small, they do not require a great deal of water,” she adds.
So far since 2017, the Rakshak pads have reached 0.25 million women, claims Kaushik. The women at the centre, along with others who have joined the non-profit, have also held workshops and orientation drives on menstrual health in schools in rural Haryana.
This article was originally published in the August 1-15, 2025 print edition of Down To Earth