Price and enhance employment generation for women. A pilot project being envisaged for jute sanitary napkin is expected to produce a lakh such napkins per day. The project will assist jute farmers in getting remunerative price and will enhance women employment generation, according to a report in a top Indian business newspaper. The ministry, through the National Jute Board, earlier sponsored a project of the Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association (IJIRA) to develop jute-based, low-cost sanitary napkins. Now, the government wants farmers to involve in the project.
Most sanitary napkins available in the market are derived out of wood pulp which is imported from the China or the United States. “IJIRA-developed sanitary napkin out of jute pulp where both jute fibres and jute sticks have been used in optimum ratio would be an import substitute of wood pulp,” the ministry had stated in parliament upper house in February last year. Jute-based sanitary napkin has been certified by the National Test House, Kolkata, as well. The cost of jute pulp is 30-40 per cent less than the conventionally used wood pulp. Jute is grown in nearly 83 districts of West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya. West Bengal alone accounts for over 50 per cent raw jute production.
