Unipads
Client: Unipads
Product: Sanitary Pad
Title: Blood Fertilizer
Media: Activation, community centres
Country: India
Date Of Campaign: 17 February 2024
Background: Taboos surrounding menstrual blood are widespread in India. In Gujarat, menstrual blood is seen as one of the most impure things around food. 82% of women in rural India are still not allowed inside kitchens or anywhere close to food while menstruating. They believe that even a single drop of menstrual blood can destroy entire crops.Unipads – a reusable sanitary pad brand, recognized as one of the rare organizations to meet 6 UN Sustainable Development Goals wanted to change this.Cultural Context:Every rural home in the Indian state of Gujarat has a compost pit called 'Ukeda'. This is where they collect cattle dung, leftover animal fodder, foliage, vegetable & food waste for an entire year. At the beginning of the farming season, 'Ukeda' is dug up and the compost is used in farms as fertilizer to grow crops. With more than 70% of rural population in farming, 'Ukedas' are a common sight.
Idea: To break the taboos we put the menstrual blood under examination. The blood tests reflected presence of essential nutrients for crops. Menstrual blood has higher content of NPK (102% nitrogen, 209% phosphorus, 230% potassium) compared to normal blood. These are beneficial nutrients for crop growth.So, we asked women to dispose their used certified organic & compostable pads with menstrual blood in ‘Ukedas’ or compost pits to form world's first fertilizer made with menstrual blood to break taboos around periods. While taboos suggest that menstrual blood destroys crop, we created fertilizer from it which is now used to grow variety of crops.The compost was then used in farm and grow crops. The same blood that was believed to destroy crops, now helps grow them. Circular Solution:These compostable pads are Global Organic Textile Standard certified.It can break down within 3-5 months depending on the heat generated inside compost pits from cattle dung & food waste processes. We aim to break menstrual taboos with this innovation and address environment waste with it. The industry issue of menstrual waste is alarming, around 12.3 billion sanitary napkins, amounting to 113,000 tons of waste reach India’s landfills every year. While disposable pads contain chemicals and plastics that do not decompose, Unipads certified pads can break down in compost.
Results: Results:155 Villages became a part of this initiative. 115,000 farmers participated and agreed to use menstrual blood fertilizer.320,000 tons of blood fertilizer was produced.45+ varieties of produce were grown with blood fertilizer which includes 624 tons groundnut, 48 tons cumin, 5 tons wheat and more than 72 tons of vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, beetroots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.Elected members of Indian parliament and Gujarat legislative assembly appealed to 1.6 million people to break the taboos surrounding menstrual blood and food.Elected members which include Dr. Payalben Kukrani, Dr. Darshita Shah, Bhagabhai Dhanabhai Barad & Hemant Khava promised strict action against injustice from taboo beliefs.115,000 farmers now encourage women around food when menstruating.NGOs like Manav Sadhna, Saath & Impact Guru have joined us to scale these efforts for long term.
