She could have chosen a life in politics. If nothing, a life of plain comfort.
But Yogita Arun Gawli chose to follow her heart and the path that led her to give back to the society. Based out of Mumbai’s Dagdi Chawl is Kara Foundation that takes pride in making and distributing sanitary napkins for the underprivileged women. As DIPTI RANGLANI GULABANI visited their headquarters to gain insight into their world and discuss their work with Yogita at length, one thought stands out loudest. Making these pads available to the women has been the core idea and most important aspect of the foundation since it began and not just since an A-list celebrity’s movie released to talk about it!
The Gawli family has served the people, by way of philanthropy and politics both. That explains how Yogita understands the needs of the marginalized community so well. “I was always interested in empowering the society, especially women. I wanted to take up a cause and focus on bettering the lives of people. So, when I did my research and found out that almost 80 per cent of Indian women are unaware of the complications caused by using unhygienic methods during their menses. I was aghast to find the number of deaths caused by the diseases and decided to do something about it in my own way.”
Though the cause has been made famous by a movie lately, Yogita believes that addressing the issue is just the tip of the iceberg. Hence, she decided to take it a notch higher in her quest to manufacture pads and distribute them free of cost. “We met Arunachalam Muruganantham, the original Pad Man, and understood the situation better. However, bringing the machinery to Mumbai was difficult so we had our own ISO certified manufacturer here who could help us produce biodegradable pads. We started this unit in July 2017 and now we have more than 12 women working with us.
Not just this, we have 10 BMC schools and 552 girls who we have adopted for their monthly sanitary needs. And my targetis to have around 2000 girls benefit by this year end.”
Intrigued, we probe Ms Gawli to discuss the sanitary pad manufacturing aspect of Kara Foundation in detail and she said, “Our product is called ‘U-vati’ and it costs only around Rs. 35-40 for a pack of 8 pads, that amounts to merely Rs. 480 for a girl’s yearly sanitary hygiene. Also, our product is handmade, completely chemical free and skin friendly as opposed to napkins made by branded companies that use 90 percent plastic in manufacturing absorbent pads.
We haven’t got to the point of selling the pads and are only donating them for now. But, we will look at selling the pads in order to cover our expenses of running the unit, the salaries of the women and for the raw materials.”
While the production has crossed the mark of 2000-3000 pieces in a month, the foundation still faces some challenges. “We are donating pads to the girls who can’t afford to buy the right products and also hoping to start a practice for them early on and when they grow up and become financially independent, they can continue using U-vati napkins. We are looking at associating with organisations who can support and endorse our mission to enhance the lives of girl child.”
Even though there’s a recent Bollywood release talking about a similar cause and promoting good health amongst the rural areas, Yogita feels that only addressing the issue won’t help unless we dig deeper in the issue. She insists, “Since the movie’s release I have read about these new pad banks, vending machines, etc but these people have no record of how many girls have benefitted or what their feedback for the product is.
Is there a record of the beneficiaries? No, right? This and more cost related issues make machine a non-viable option for us. The machine doesn’t give more than one pad at a time and it is obviously after a coin is put in. Most of the times, these machines aren’t refilled and kept empty for a long time.”
On being prod to continue further, she says, “BMC schools have installed such machines but
they’re not either inactive or the girls don’t know how to use them. What’s even worse is that their storage capacity is less and because of that it needs to be refilled very often. But my only concern is the quality of pads used to supply in cheapest possible means.
Before initiating our U-vati project, I had visited a lot of manufacturers and found their napkin quality as bad as the women using old cloths during their days. That substandard quality also can cause harm.”
So while the cause is great, Yogita as the founder of this organisation focussing on women entrepreneurial skill building, decided to take the cause in her own hands and distributing the product for free, instead of succumbing to publicity tactics and attention seeking gimmicks. Shedding light on the publicity aspect that the issue is currently marred with Yogita 
explains, “We have been working towards making affordable sanitary napkins available much prior to the movie. We have genuinely worked for women and their benefits rather than just spending time and money on publicity. I can proudly say that we have the numbers and records to show how happy girls are with U-vati and how much they have benefitted from using our products when and where they need them. 
We have also tried to engage people as this is a social venture, by helping them with various other resources to make a livelihood. This is our moral responsibility as Indian citizens to help uplift the lower socio-economic population. At Kara Foundation, we take immense pride in helping women of all age and backgrounds by helping them learn a new skill, providing them with raw materials to the extent of even helping them sell those products. Some of ladies’ bestselling items include home decor items such as quilts, embroidered items and even the latest handmade pearls and tassle earrings.”
Lastly, as she talks about the Foundation’s future plans, Yogita excitedly shares that they will soon be looking at initiating another unit in Kolhapur, where she will be temporarily moving after she gets married in April this year. And talking about her family’s involvement and reaction to her initiative, Yogita says, “My family has always supported me, to the point that when I had just started manufacturing the napkins and discussed the designs, I used to openly show the pads to my brothers that helped them understand many aspects. My fiance too is extremely supportive of my vision.”
YOGITA GAWLI
Mob: +917710037378 |+912223015375
Email: yogita@karafoundation.org.in
