IIT-backed biotech start-up Clensta International and Amazon India in collaboration with the Pad Women of India Prachi Kaushik provided training to over 500 poor and rural women to produce hygiene products, thus making them Atmanirbhar during the lockdown.
Clensta CEO Puneet Gupta says, “The vision behind the initiative is not to only provide them livelihood opportunities, but also empower them so they don’t have to struggle for bread and butter amid the pandemic.”
The hygiene products produced include Clensta Instant Hand Sanitizer, Clensta Instant Hand Hygiene Gel and Clensta Antimicrobial Waterless Body Bath. While Amazon India is the prime buyer of the products made by these women to encourage their production capabilities, Vyomini helped in mobilising women in the tough times of the pandemic. “These women used to be low-wage daily workers paid on a contractual basis in factories in and around Nashik, Maharashtra,” says Gupta, adding, “Almost 25,000 bottles are sold to Amazon daily, and the women could make a minimum wage of Rs 800 per day as fixed and variable.”