koppal even as the chandrayaan rover attempts to land on the south pole of the moon only 18 of the countrys rural women are using sanitary pads says bharathi gudlanur aka pad woman from koppaleven now girls and women feel embarrassed to talk about menstrual pads in such a situation bharathi is creating awareness about menstrual health among women manufacturing plasticfree high quality sanitary napkins and offers them at an affordable priceit all started after watching akshay kumars movie pad man in 2018 bharathi had no idea back then that this movie and its message three years later would become a major part of her life this bcom graduate from koppal who was working in ngos before that was deeply impressed by the moviesoon after she decided to provide affordable quality pads to rural women of koppal her first attempt began in 2018 by attending the common service center programme in delhi where she was able to procure a sanitary napkin production machine for rs 3 lakh but by then she noticed that 99 of the 1000 such units across the country had shut down due to lack of market it became clear to her that manufacturing and selling quality sanitary pads at affordable prices was a real challengekeeping all these factors in mind she started a pink pad manufacturing unit under the name sangiene the word is a combination of sanitary and hygiene in koppal on october 2 2018 in the beginning there were no buyers and cheap pads of poor quality were easily available in the market since there was no market for handmade pads she switched to a semiautomatic unit meanwhile bharathi noticed that only 18 of women in rural areas use sanitary pads neither teachers nor mothers educated girls about menstruation management firm on finding a market for her sangiene pads in rural areas she visited educational institutions slums and villages addressing women and holding demonstrations about affordable padssangiene pads slowly gained popularity during the covid lockdown the then women and child development minister shashikala jolle ordered the district administration to clear hurdles for the distribution of these pads after the media reported their shortage in rural areas sangiene pads are becoming increasingly popular and after news broke that actor akshay kumar admired her work bharathi is being recognised as pad woman inspired by this bharathi has installed vending machines at 10 places and has been supplying pads to over 25000 women in koppal dharwad and ballari districts my dream is to make koppal district a 100 padusing district says bharathi