KOCHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reference to the ‘Re 1 Sanitary Pad’ scheme in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort has since resulted in huge demand for the pads at Janaushadhi centres in the state.
Though the pads have been in the market for the past four months, it is only now that there has been a soaring demand for them after netizens took to social media praising the PM for touching upon a taboo topic while addressing the nation on the 74th Independence Day.
“We have been stocking the pads for the last three months. However, there has been a surge in demand after the PM’s address. His speech seemed to have given a new brand identity to the pad,” said R Rajesh, who runs a couple of Janaushadhi outlets in Ernakulam. Amit Aravind, who operates Janaushadhi centres in Thiruvananthapuram, said more men are coming forward to buy the `1 pad for their woman family members. “In fact, we are running out of stock and have to place bulk orders to meet the demand. It is fact that the PM’s speech referring to the sanitary pad has given a major push to its sales,” Amit said.
Rajesh said as more people are placing bulk orders for the pads, the outlets have been forced to limit the number of pads sold to each buyer.
“The pads are available in a small pack of four costing Rs 4. People have started to buy even 50 packs and this is causing a shortage. The pad has been launched for women who cannot afford an expensive sanitary pad. So, we have limited the number of pads sold to a person,” Rajesh said. He said people from all strata of society are coming to the outlets to buy the pads.