Sustainable Pads Empower Indian Women: Kristin Kagetsu / Co-Founder, Saathi

In India, sanitary products are uncommon. Saathi makes pads from banana fiber, supplying women who lack access. Co-founder, Kristin Kagetsu discusses sustainable solutions for menstrual issues.

Transcript

00:04

Direct Talk

00:08

The women of India not only
face issues with class discrimination

00:12

but also with feminine hygiene issues.

00:15

In particular goods like
sanitary napkins are costly

00:19

and hard to find.

00:20

Only 36% of menstruating women use them,

00:23

while some are unaware that they exist.

00:28

Many sanitary products also include plastics.

00:31

So, if 100% of women were to use them,

00:33

they could become a
major source of pollution.

00:36

With all this in mind

00:37

a startup has developed a new kind of pad.

00:41

We created it because we wanted to make sure

00:44

that we're addressing lack of access to
menstrual products, but in a sustainable way.

00:50

The pads are made with banana fiber.

00:52

When buried, they naturally decompose

00:55

and cause no soil contamination.

01:00

Co-founder of the company, Kristin Kagetsu

01:03

shares her thoughts on sustainable solutions
for feminine hygiene issues.

01:08

Sustainable Pads Empower Indian Women

01:13

Ahmedabad in the western
Indian province of Gujarat.

01:17

The growing industrial city is the location
for many overseas enterprises.

01:24

This modern office building is
Kagetsu's company headquarters.

01:28

The sustainable sanitary products they make
are sold domestically at eco-friendly shops

01:33

and available online in places
like North America and Asia.

01:39

The company name,
Saathi, means "friend" in Hindi.

01:43

The aim being to be
both woman and eco-friendly.

01:48

Tarun Bothra
Co-Founder

01:49

In 2015,

01:51

Kagetsu founded the company
with a like-minded partner.

01:55

The lack of access to sanitary products
for Indian women serving

01:58

as their motivation.

02:02

When you don't have access to
sanitary pads, you'll use other means.

02:06

So maybe it's like old cloths
or things like that.

02:10

And the issue with the cloth is not that
it's a cloth, but about how do you wash it.

02:17

So with old cloths,
if you don't keep it out in the sun,

02:22

it won't get sanitized,

02:24

and that was one of the main problems.

02:26

Why wouldn't people
hang it out to dry in the sun

02:30

is because there is a taboo.

02:32

So the taboo is there.

02:33

And then women feel like
if they're going to hang it out to dry,

02:37

then the neighbor will see and then
the neighbor will talk and things like that.

02:41

And another kind of issue that we're
looking at is not just lack of access,

02:47

but also some of the other infections and

02:51

things that people face for
using these unhygienic options.

02:56

So sometimes it's not even old rags.

02:57

Maybe it would... might even be soil, ash,

03:01

or anything else that's available,

03:04

and these can cause infections.

03:07

The third issue,

03:08

then one of the things is, if you don't have
access to these sanitary pads,

03:14

then you're less mobile.

03:15

You can't go to work or go to school,

03:18

and these kind of hinder you
in the long term.

03:23

If you can't go to school every month
for five days, three days, or seven days,

03:28

then you're missing so much time.
You fall behind.

03:32

In the US, something that is a
basic necessity in a way,

03:36

like, that you see everywhere.

03:38

It's accessible through the pharmacy,

03:42

through pretty much any shop
or grocery store, even.

03:48

And seeing that many women
and girls didn't have access,

03:52

yeah, it was heartbreaking,

03:54

like something that
you really can't imagine, almost.

04:00

Kagetsu is an Asian-American born
and raised in New York City.

04:06

I'm half Chinese, half Japanese,

04:10

raised in New York City.

04:12

We had the Indian babysitter,

04:15

and so she would also,

04:17

kind of, introduce us to all the
other kinds of food and everything.

04:20

I think I grew up, like, mixed in that way,

04:24

like having all three of
the cultures mixed together.

04:30

She was admitted to MIT.

04:32

But she wasn't so much interested in
subjects like computer programing,

04:36

as she was driven to find practical
solutions to pressing social problems.

04:42

I had worked on a project in
waste management and recycling.

04:46

I worked on a project in plastic
bottle recycling and things like that.

04:51

And those were the kind of projects I like

04:53

because they're helping to maybe solve
some problems that people are facing.

04:59

And then my final project,
I got to come to India actually

05:05

and work on a product with
the local NGO in Uttarakhand,

05:12

and we were making natural-dye crayons.

05:15

So they were focused on textile dyeing,

05:18

and they had a lot of pigments left over,

05:20

and they wanted to use the pigments
for making some product for kids.

05:25

And so I helped them develop that recipe,

05:28

but all of the goals for every project
that they work on, and have students work on,

05:35

is to improve people's life or
livelihoods or something like that.

05:43

That's something I wanted to do.

05:46

After graduation, she was determined to
find some way to help people in India,

05:51

a place familiar to her since childhood.

05:55

She was hoping to address women's
lack of access to sanitary goods.

05:59

When she met her future business partner,
they got straight to work.

06:04

Basically we wanted to
understand the whole problem

06:08

and see if we can come up with one of
the best solutions for that same problem

06:13

and not create more problems later.

06:16

So we discussed quite
a bit amongst ourselves:

06:20

How are we going to do it?

06:21

What are the options available?

06:23

How do we, kind of, make machinery?

06:25

We also had that concept at the beginning.

06:27

We thought maybe we'll make these
machines, bring those to a village setting,

06:32

and women self-help groups
will make the product themselves.

06:36

But that's not necessarily the most effective way for us to, kind of, contribute to the problem.

06:43

But as we develop a solution,

06:46

we saw like...
when we went to visit the village,

06:49

we saw different situations.

06:51

So, for example,

06:54

if we bring in just regular pads
with the plastic and all of that,

06:59

then where are they going to
throw them after they use them?

07:02

So if you bring a
plastic-or-chemical-filled pad

07:06

to a rural area or village

07:08

which has no landfill or anything,

07:11

then those pads will just
end up around the community

07:16

or in the water, in the local
water bodies and things like that,

07:21

and then it will pollute those areas.

07:24

And so, then, again
it causes other health issues.

07:28

So we decided we're going to
try and make these pads

07:31

completely biodegradable and compostable.

07:34

And at the time, it was not something
other people were looking into.

07:40

After a lot of trial and error,

07:42

they settled on banana fiber,
widely available

07:46

and extremely absorbent,
as the base material.

07:50

They also developed a proprietary technique
for the pad's manufacture.

07:55

We spent maybe two years developing
before selling anything.

08:01

So our first pad,

08:04

yes, you can say that design did have,
like, just the banana fiber core.

08:10

And then we took more time to
figure out how to replace all the layers

08:15

because we hadn't settled on
the business model.

08:18

So once we took that time,
we were able to replace every layer.

08:23

And in terms of the banana fiber,

08:26

some of the good qualities is that it's
one of the most absorbent natural fibers,

08:32

and therefore the pads are
just as absorbent as your regular pads

08:36

that you would get in the market.

08:38

A lot of the people we wanted to work with.

08:42

They said we should either focus on
addressing the lack of access

08:46

or we should focus on
addressing the sustainability,

08:49

but not do both together.

08:51

And we were very stubborn to,
kind of, commit to both of those things

08:56

because we saw it as a full-cycle solution.

09:00

We didn't want to separate them
because they're pretty much interlinked.

09:04

We also wanted to have as much impact
even built into our supply chain.

09:09

So it benefits farmers in that
this is something already

09:13

they have to cut down the tree
every harvest anyway.

09:16

And once they cut the tree down,
then it's a waste material,

09:20

like they need to remove it from the land.

09:23

So this is something which we are using.

09:25

So we're purchasing, kind of,
their waste material for our use.

09:30

So they're able to get
additional income for that.

09:33

So not only will they
get income for the fruit,

09:36

which they sell to the vendors,

09:38

but also, they'll be getting income for
materials they don't use anymore.

09:44

In the factory, as a
further means of empowerment,

09:47

local women are employed
as production workers.

09:51

This woman began work here
through her sister-in-law.

09:54

Before, she hadn't known that
sanitary products even existed.

10:00

Since I started using pads
my health is better.

10:04

Housework is easy

10:06

and going out is also no problem.

10:10

Yes, I feel my health is much better,

10:14

I feel like, I have more power over my life.

10:18

Once they are using the pads

10:21

and they're feeling like
it's a more comfortable experience,

10:25

they don't get rashes,
irritation, other discomfort.

10:28

They're also able to be more mobile

10:30

and go to school or go to work.

10:33

Women that we work with have
also increased their use of pads,

10:38

but also they've told us that now that
they have started working with Saathi,

10:44

they're able to provide...
they're able to get additional income,

10:49

which means they're able to
send their daughters to school,

10:53

so they're having more impact
that way as well.

10:57

In an effort to overcome taboos
surrounding menstruation,

11:01

they also hold workshops.

11:03

But this comes with its own difficulties.

11:07

I would say, in terms of making people aware,
there's a few different challenges.

11:13

One is, of course,
the openness to conversation.

11:17

And once you're open to the conversation,

11:20

then of course we have to
discuss about some things

11:24

which maybe people aren't comfortable with -

11:27

and there's always something in society
which people are not comfortable with.

11:33

But I think this is one of the things which
it's a natural process in our body,

11:37

which is something...
that we're trying to break that barrier

11:42

because it's not necessarily something
that people should be ashamed of,

11:47

or that people have to
hide or something like this,

11:50

because it happens to everyone

11:52

or like, all women and girls
and other menstruators,

11:57

and it's not something
we have to be hiding, I guess.

12:04

Saathi distributes pads free of charge
to women lacking access,

12:08

paid for by contributions from partner
companies and NGOs working for social change.

12:16

So one of our previous goals was to...

12:19

like, when we first started Saathi, one of
our goals was to distribute one million pads.

12:25

And so this year, we're very excited
to have achieved that goal.

12:29

So we've distributed one million pads
to women in underserved areas.

12:33

And our new goal is
to reach ten million women.

12:37

So that's one of our goals for the future.

12:39

And in doing that, we'll be able to eliminate
18,000 metric tons of plastic waste.

12:47

So these are some of
our goals for the future.

12:51

When we first started Saathi,

12:53

at that time only maybe 16% of women
had access to sanitary pads,

12:59

and now it's more like 36%.

13:03

So even over those years
it's grown quite a lot.

13:07

Even as more women use pads,

13:09

the environmental impact is minimized.

13:14

Banana fiber is used to produce pads.

13:19

The pads go to the users.

13:23

After use the pads biodegrade,

13:26

and in 6 months become compost,

13:28

returning to the soil.

13:30

The cycle of manufacturing in harmony with
the environment she had envisioned made real.

13:41

We asked Kagetsu to
sum up her vision in writing.

13:48

"Banana pads that are good for the body,
the community, and the environment."

13:52

Banana pads that are good for the body,
the community, and the environment.

13:54

I guess our vision for Saathi is that
we're creating a systemic change

14:01

in the way menstrual hygiene is addressed,

14:03

and that means we're making sanitary pads
from materials that are natural,

14:09

don't contain any plastic,

14:12

no chemicals,

14:13

and we're doing this in a
sustainable and responsible way.

14:18

I think one of the things is that,

14:20

in the future, we're going to be looking for
new models of how we can produce products,

14:25

not just our products but other products too,

14:28

whether it's furniture
or any kind of products.

14:31

How do we make those sustainably?

14:33

How do we, kind of,
live symbiotically with nature

14:38

and create a more positive environment?

14:44

And at the same time, we want to maintain
good relationships also with the community.

14:52

Banana pads that are good for the body,
the community, and the environment.