Donate to Padbank - Free Sanitary Napkin Bank for Poor Girls & Women

Menstrual hygiene is a massive problem in India. Unfortunately, menstruation is a subject that still largely remains taboo. It is not a subject that is openly discussed. Hence, the scale of the problem and its devastating impacts are less known. Lack of knowledge about menstruation and hygiene coupled with a large population in the low per capita income group ends up shocking statistics in India. More than 11 crores of adolescent girls are vulnerable to poor menstrual hygiene.

According to official studies, 70% of girls use old unhygienic clothes as absorbents during their periods, whereas 44% reported embarrassment and humiliation over restrictions, 60% of girls miss school because of menstruation, and 23% leave school on reaching puberty.

Circumstances force many girls to use materials like mud, cow dung and natural leaves when they menstruate. These unhygienic materials put women at risk of reproductive tract infections leading to deadly diseases like cervical cancer. Constant ignorance of this natural phenomenon has been harming the health & dignity of women for a long.

The efforts of the government and a few individuals alone will not suffice. It requires a contribution by the whole civil society.

Under our program PadBank, members of Pinkishe run PadBank branches across the nation from their homes and other places and our volunteers distribute sanitary pads free to needy girls while enhancing their awareness levels on the subject of menstrual hygiene.

​We started our activities in the year 2017. Our volunteers across 50+ branches across India ran awareness campaigns and started collecting pad donations. The collected pads are then distributed to needy girls in rural areas and slums. In the process, awareness sessions are conducted by qualified doctors and our volunteers to enhance their knowledge about the importance of menstrual hygiene, usage of sanitary absorbents, correct method of usage and disposal and so on.

In due course of time, we started researching and have begun manufacturing reusable cloth pads of our own. These are high-quality pads. These pads use a special fabric that lets air flow through it but stops liquid; making them leakproof yet comfortable while using. The pads are designed in special shape and size in a way that when unfolded, they look like a regular cloth so that girls do not feel shy about drying them in the open.

To support 100000 girls living in 50 villages get sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene education for a period of 12 months.