Meet Pad Man of Bhopal Whose Business is on the Verge of Shutting Down

Rajnish Dharwar, from the city of lakes Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in 2014, kick started the most challenging business of ‘manufacturing and selling low cost sanitary pads’ by taking Rs 10 lakh debt. However, after four years he is in great misery and still struggling to repay the debt, on the verge of shutting down .

In 2014, at the age of 26, when most of the youths dream of starting a fashionable business or a white collar job in a private firms or in government agencies, Rajnish, along with his elder brother Hirdesh Dharwar decided to open a sanitary pad manufacturing company named ‘NP industries’. It manufactured feminine hygiene products such as sanitary pad and maternity pads named ‘Don’t care’ which were cheaper than the other sanitary napkins available in the market.

At the start of his business, Rajnish had hired 25 people for manufacturing and marketing of the products. But due to the constant decline in demand, he started trimming down his team which has now shrunk to nine staffs -- five for marketing and four for production.

The real fight began when the product hit the market. The marketing team ate dust to sell it. They had done door to door campaign to convince each one of their buyers.

“Establishing and selling sanitary products in rural areas is like scaling mount Everest alone. Our team visited every nook and corner of the nearby districts, villages and panchayats. They not only convinced them but also made them aware of the product,” said Rajnish.

“Due to the orthodox nature of our society, where people are ashamed to talk about menstruation cycle, selling sanitary pads is tough task,” said Hirdesh adding that, sometimes people took a jibe on them because they sold sanitary pads.

"In the beginning, we distributed free pads in the villages to earn the trust but the response was not as enthusiastic as we had expected," he added.

Rajnish ran from pillar to post to make his business sustainable. But neither the Bhopal district administration nor state government ministers showed any interest to aid or promote him.

In an attempt to make his business more sustainable, he bid for government contracts, floated by the Micro, Small and Medium enterprises department of the state, but was left empty handed because the department did not oped the tender consecutively for three years.

In 2017, it shifted to the Government e-marketplace (GeM) a National Public Procurement Portal: an end-to-end online Marketplace for Central and State Government Ministries / Departments, Central & State Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs & SPSUs), Autonomous institutions and Local bodies, for procurement of common use goods to usher in transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.

But all their efforts started to go astray when orders for the sanitary napkins started to decline. In a bid to get aid, they met with Ministers, government officials but were strung out to dry.

“I often met with district magistrate of Bhopal, visited several government offices and also met with the state Health Minister, Rustam Singh and senior Minister, Narottam Mishra in this regard. They praised my efforts but failed to extend their support,” said Rajnish adding that "some of the government officials even denied helping me, saying that neither we have funds nor any rate slabs to purchase such things".