VILLUPURAM: For nearly five years, K Renuka’s life revolved around hospital corridors. Recurring medical tests and IVF cycles grabbed a major chunk of her time, as she waited with patience to embrace motherhood. The journey left her weary, but also gifted her an intimate understanding of the anxieties that often accompany women’s reproductive health.
One day, during the course of her treatment, her doctor recommended that she move away from regular store-bought sanitary napkins and switch to organic alternatives — a suggestion that set her thinking. Unable to find an option she was entirely comfortable with, the 37-year-old medical laboratory technology graduate from Valavanur in Villupuram began reading up on menstrual hygiene and experimenting with making sanitary napkins for her own use.
By 2020, when the lockdown took everyone by surprise, she began creating her own herbal napkins. What started as a personal experiment gradually found an audience beyond her home. Friends who tried the napkins encouraged Renuka to take the idea further, eventually prompting her to turn it into a fledgling business venture.
“I did not want any other woman to go through the kind of pain and difficulties I experienced. I started researching menstrual hygiene and was inspired by women on YouTube who were making organic sanitary napkins. What began as a small idea eventually grew into a business venture, giving me a sense of independence and self-empowerment,” she said.
As things started to get more professional, Renuka joined hands with a friend, now her business partner, and together they invested around Rs 25 lakh to set up a venture to manufacture herbal sanitary napkins. The products are made using natural ingredients and herbs like neem, nilavembu, tulsi, turmeric and aloe vera.
According to Renuka, the napkins incorporate ingredients traditionally associated with antimicrobial properties, while tulsi and turmeric are known for their anti-inflammatory properties. Aloe vera is added to make the napkins softer and more comfortable. She says that the products are made without some of the chemicals used in conventional sanitary products, which she believes can cause discomfort for certain women. The product has received ISI certification through her friend’s primary funding company supporting her venture.
Produced by a team of three, the napkins are currently sold in packs of six, with the XL pack priced at Rs 130 and the XXL pack at Rs 150. Having started the venture in Villupuram, Renuka now hopes to take the products to women across Tamil Nadu through online sales. The business is still in its early stages, with Renuka currently earning around Rs 10,000 a month. For her, however, the modest income marks an important step towards financial independence.
Her journey, however, suffered another blow when she lost her husband a year ago. Grieving while raising her child and navigating life on her own, Renuka found herself having to rebuild from the ground up. In the midst of that upheaval, her modest enterprise was the only means that kept her going and gradually became a means of staying anchored. However, as she mentions time and again, the journey would not have been possible without the women who have tried her products and strengthened her resolve to expand the venture.
“I believe menstrual hygiene products should not be viewed merely as commercial commodities, but as essentials that directly affect a woman’s comfort and well-being,” she says.
For Renuka, therefore, the venture is more than earning an income; it is a personal transformation from a woman who spent years navigating her own reproductive health struggles to an entrepreneur determined to create an organic alternative for others facing menstrual discomfort. “It is my way of turning what I went through into something that can help other women,” she said.
From a small beginning in Villupuram, Renuka now dreams of taking her products to women across Tamil Nadu and turning the fledgling venture into a sustainable enterprise rooted in women’s health. Beyond sales and expansion, she hopes to foster a sense of sisterhood in which women’s experiences, discomforts and hard-won lessons can be shared, understood and turned into care for one another.
(Edited by Swarnali Dutta)