Giocare is a feminine hygiene product that has a registered trademark. It is designed by Mr.S.Damodaran, Founder and CEO, Gramalaya. It’s being manufactured and marketed by GREAT PVT Ltd.
Giocare reusable cloth pads is an Initiative of Gramalaya Sanitation NGO, a 34-year-old NGO, Approved by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, as a key resource centre. Gramalaya has worked with adolescent girls in the Government schools of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with the grant support of Corporates under CSR Initiatives for menstrual hygiene management and girls-friendly toilets promotion in schools.
During the hygiene education sessions, “Menstrual periods” is found to be one of the main reasons for dropouts or absence during school hours. The adolescent girls in schools are not aware of menstrual hygiene products, practices and the importance of menstrual hygiene management. Sufferings of adolescent girls & women and the drive to end them, motivated Gramalaya to introduce a menstrual product that’s Women Friendly, Pocket Friendly and Environment Friendly. This is how the idea of cloth pads are innovated.
Gramalaya is promoting Menstrual Hygiene Management messages among adolescent girls studying in schools by promoting reusable cloth pads, adolescent girls’ friendly toilet complexes with hand-washing stations and conducting MHM education sessions in the schools. The MHM concept developed by Gramalaya is being recommended for case study and replication by other institutions across the country. Gramalaya has imparted MHM Education among women and adolescent girls in the rural and urban areas of South India with the rich experience in the space of WASH, MHM and Nutrition.
So far, more than 6,30,000 reusable cloth pads are distributed by Gramalaya through social marketing in India and it has prevented water, land, air and overall environment pollution by stopping the usage of single-use menstrual products among the intervention communities. Cloth pads are also protecting women’s health to a great extent in terms of menstrual health and hygiene.
Gramalaya has delivered a noteworthy attempt in declaring ATK Nagar of Pudukottai District as India’s first village where 100% of the menstruating women use cloth pads and so far 3+ villages are made as 100% cloth pad using village by Gramalaya with the support of Giocare cloth pads.
Gramalaya also conducted India’s first Menstrual Hygiene Management Summit, in New Delhi (2019), where 180 plus delegates including 46 speakers, and other stakeholders and Supporters of the Menstrual Hygiene Management Movement participated. The first largest MHM India Summit resulted in more like-minded organizations joining in the MHM Campaign with a Networking concept and making MHM a people’s movement in the country.
The ultimate aim of Giocare and Gramalaya is to make Eco-friendly and sustainable menstrual products accessible to Everyone in India.