Sanitary napkins reunite lost women with loved ones
Hisar entrepreneur uses product packaging to trace kin of shelter home inmates
In the quiet corridors of Bhagyashree Mahila Ashram in Hisar, many women live with no memory of their homes or families. But a unique initiative by a young entrepreneur has helped reunite some of them with their loved ones.
Rajvinder Kaur, a 28-year-old biomedical engineer and entrepreneur dealing in sanitary pad brand Flowelle, came up with an unusual idea to trace the families of women staying at the shelter home.
Instead of seeing them as mere inmates, she saw them as daughters, wives and mothers who deserved a chance to return home.
Determined to help them, Kaur used her sanitary pad distribution network to spread awareness about the missing women. She printed their photographs on sanitary pad packets along with a mobile phone number so that anyone recognising them could contact the shelter home.
Rajvinder Kaur
The simple but innovative idea worked. So far, three women have been reunited with their families.
Talking to ‘The Tribune’, Rajvinder said the moment of reunion was deeply emotional for her.
“I was the happiest person on this earth when three among them were reunited with their families after a long time,” she said.
The success of the initiative surprised even her.
“It was something unexpected. I could never imagine that the results would be so instant. I just made a fluke but it worked wonders,” she added.
Rajvinder initially began selling sanitary pads through e-commerce platforms. Along with her business, she also started working to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene among schoolgirls.
She conducts awareness sessions in schools and promotes the use of eco-friendly sanitary pads made from cotton and superabsorbent polymer gel. She also distributes free samples to schoolgirls and underprivileged women who often lack resources and awareness about menstrual hygiene.
“Besides business, I spare a good lot of pads to distribute free to the needy. That’s how I am associated with the shelter homes where I try to provide the best of hygiene to women destitutes,” she said.
Her association with the shelter homes eventually led to the idea of using the product packaging to help identify missing women.
Bhagyashree Mahila Ashram caretaker Balwan Singh said the initiative proved more effective than traditional methods used to trace families. He described it as a “novel way of service” that helped bridge the gap between lost individuals and their families.
Three women — Suman, Rajouri and Neha — have already been reunited with their families through the initiative. Balwan Singh said Suman, a married woman originally from Uttar Pradesh, had been living at the ashram after she wandered away from home due to mental health issues.
“She had left her home in Gohana and somehow reached village Sulakhni in Hisar. Later she was brought to the ashram,” he said.
Her family members had come to Fatehabad for labour work when they spotted Suman’s photograph on a sanitary pad packet. “That’s how they met her,” he added.
In another case, Rajouri — who had been unable to reveal any details about her family — was identified by the sarpanch of her native village in Rajasthan.
She had been staying at the ashram for six months. Antar Kumari, the sarpanch of Laxmangarh village, saw her picture on the sanitary pad packet and contacted the number printed on it. Similarly, Neha, who had been separated from her family in Bihar for several years, was identified by villagers working at a brick kiln in Hisar.
Balwan Singh said the shelter home houses many destitute women suffering from physical and mental health issues, and efforts are constantly made to locate their families. “We have hundreds of women destitutes who are mentally and physically ill who are treated in the ashram. We keep on making efforts to locate their family members. In this direction Rajvinder who was associated with us helped a lot,” he said.
