Thiruvananthapuram: Napkins plan gets wings

Thiruvananthapuram: Green Army will support the city corporation’s reusable cloth napkin project, to make environmentally sustainable menstruation choices more popular. 

Mayor V.K. Prasanth said, “The project to make cloth pads is progressing. After the production starts, there will be a campaign in schools to make the pads popular. Green Army members will be part of this campaign. We are hoping to roll out the campaign soon.”

However, the civic body is yet to make great strides with the project. One of the reasons for the delay was that the project’s implementing officer had retired in July and for a few months there was no one in charge. They are yet to float the tender for procuring sewing mac-hines required in the project. 

It is not clear whether tailors will just be trained to do the job. 

An official said that they would soon be starting workshops to train people willing to make cloth napkins.

Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has set aside Rs 30 lakh for the cloth pad project. 

This capital is more than enough for a cloth pad unit which uses sewing machines, acco-rding to Meera Thampan, an entrepreneur who has been making and selling cloth pads. 

“A sewing machine costs '12,000 to '15,000. One person would need two days, that is around ten human hours, to make 25 pads. One person would take 20 days to make 250 pads. I cater to a clientele which doesn’t require me to make more than 200 pads a month. 

But the corporation might be looking at a large system which produces more pads,” she says.

The corporation needs to look at viability since many might be used to falling back on the disposable sanitary napkins and a behaviour change is necessary, she warns. 

A Chennai-based sustainable menstruation expert had offered to support the project with technical help. 

Meanwhile, the corporation has been establishing napkin vending machines and incinerators in school toilets. This will change soon, according to the mayor.