Vatsalya Foundation, Vadodara

Vatsalya Foundation (Gujarat), manufactures and distributes sanitary napkins at a low cost under the brand name ‘Sakhi’. Vatsalya Foundation headed by Swati Bedekar provides these napkins at a minimal cost of INR2, so that women can make a switch from cloth rags to sanitary napkins. However, such a switch gives rise to another problem in rural areas – the safe disposal of used napkins. To address this problem, Swati Bedekar designed a clay incinerator, named “Ashudhinashak”, This incinerator can burn many used napkins at a time, and can turn them into ashes without spreading smoke.