Sanitree Project
The Sanitree Project addresses the period poverty and period waste present in India. 71% of girls have no knowledge of menstruation prior to starting their period which leads to a generational cycle of taboos, unhygienic products, and socio-economic problems for girls and women.
Sanitree places a strong emphasis on tackling period poverty sustainably due to the striking statistic that by 2030 the number of discarded pads per year could reach 30 billion, equating to 800,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year. Our intersectional approach allows us to help combat period poverty while advocating for a healthier planet.
Tackling Period Poverty and Period Poverty Education
Sanitree founder Bharat identified persistent period poverty and plastic waste in his hometown of Bhind and decided to establish Sanitree in Edinburgh and India to help combat this problem. We place our beneficiaries at the Her Shakti Centre at the heart of what we do and use their first-person knowledge to identify what is needed. We work closely with Ishu, the director of the centre in India, who communicates with various NGOs and schools in Rajasthan to ensure our project is directly addressing the needs of people in India.
Sanitree is a project founded by University of Edinburgh students to sustainably tackle period poverty in India by:
Employing women from vulnerable backgrounds to sew reusable menstrual pads at the Her Shakti Centre in India.
Distributing the reusable pads to schools and NGOs around India to improve menstruator's socio-economic outcomes.
Project Outcomes
This year, Sanitree is celebrating its 5th birthday, which feels like a big achievement having survived a global pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis. In light of these challenges, our goals this year (1) in Jaipur were to successfully restart production and (2) in Edinburgh, we aimed to re-recruit a team of 18, after the previous team had graduated.
Achievements to Date
Pads
Sanitree has produced 9500 pads in 5 years, saving a minimum of 218,500 pads going to landfill. This is equivalent to 874,000 plastic bags worth of plastic saved! At Sanitree, we don’t throw anything away so 160kg of offcuts from our pad production have been saved from landfill and used to make stuffing for cushions. We have provided 34 beneficiaries with flexible and supportive employment
Outreach
Sanitree have delivered educational sessions in 109 schools, to over 5,000 students across Rajasthan. We have reached a further 1,100 women in 22 economically deprived areas over the last year and 2,000 more across our 5 years (3,100 in total) - A total of 8,100 women and girls.
-
Sanitree-Her Shakti Centre Pad Production in Jaipur, India
-
2022-2023
-
Eradicate period poverty in India through sustainable reusable pads which employ women in India to enhance their socio-economic outcomes
Targeted campaigning to encourage eco-conscious consumers in the UK and India to switch to sustainable, ethically produced, period products
Send a number of pads over to the UK to sell and encourage the use of reusable period products where the money will go directly back to the Her Shakti Centre in Jaipur.
Expand community outreach on sexual and reproductive health education in India as well as events that outline the scale of period product waste in the UK. -
Having just celebrated their 5th anniversary, CHEC is proud to be part of Sanitree’s achievements:
Sanitree has produced 9,500 pads in 5 years, saving a minimum of 218,500 pads going to landfill - the equivalent of 874,000 plastic bags worth of plastic saved!
160kg of offcuts from our pad production have been saved from landfill and used to make stuffing for cushions.
We have provided 34 beneficiaries with flexible and supportive employment
Read the full project report here
