The South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) plans to start producing low cost sanitary napkins in bulk.
Prakash Vasudevan, its Director, told The Hindu on Thursday that following the visit of Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal to the Association recently, SITRA is in talks with the Department of Pharmaceuticals to supply sanitary napkins to Jan Aushadhi stores.
The SITRA imported a sanitary pad making machine eight years ago for its incubation facility at the Centre of Excellence for Medical Textiles. The machine can make 200 to 250 napkins a minute. The Jan Aushadhi stores across the country require nearly 25 crore napkins a year and the Department has called for bids from suppliers.
“When the Minister visited the SITRA last month, he was impressed with the machine and asked us if we can supply to the Jan Aushadhi stores. Subsequently, we have had discussions with the Department of Pharmaceuticals in this regard,” he said. The SITRA will have to be a primary supplier to the Jan Aushadhi stores and will have to be a manufacturing company to take part in the bids. The other option is to make use of CSR funds of corporate companies and supply the napkins to the stores.
“The Ministry of Textiles and the SITRA are looking at different options. We are also studying ways to reduce the cost of the napkins. At present, our production cost works out to nearly ₹2.35 a piece,” he said.
The machine was so far used by incubatees who wanted to study the opportunities in the napkin market. If the project takes off, SITRA will be making the napkins and supplying them for the retail market, he said.
