India is said to be home to one third of the world’s poorest population; breakdown being 48.1 % women and 51.9% men, out of which 62% women are illiterate while 34% of men are illiterate.

For several communities in India menstruation is seen as an excuse to treat women as untouchables. For these days of the month, they are denied the right to participate in social customs and daily chores (farm and household activities, live stock production, forest resource use, fishery processing use etc) through which they would normally contribute to the household income.
Women in India also suffer from high incidence of reproductive disease and disability, eventually leading to early death. These women are dependent on their husbands and other family members for health related information and decisions.

Each month girls have to stay away from school and sports when they are menstruating. They do not look forward to this time of the month, because they cannot afford pads. Some become sexually active to buy pads in turn leading to STD and pregnancy. Because they cannot afford sanitary pads they use rags, paper found in litter, old newspapers and grass leaves. This does not provide reliable protection and can also lead to other infections.

Currently very little work is being done on educating men. Therefore the Foundation also looks at educating men and creating awareness among them on matters of women's reproductive health and hygiene.
The project aims at making affordable sanitary pads from locally available materials thereby keeping young girls from poor families in school all month long as well as generating local employment for many women and girls.