[100 Emerging Women Leaders] How Sujata Pawar is making menstruation a dignified experience for women

“Menstruators of any kind should come forth and talk about their experiences. There is nothing shameful in talking about periods,” says Sujata Pawar, Founder of Avni, a women’s wellness brand. 

The inspiration for working on women’s health appeared early in her teens when she hit puberty. The menstrual products available those days did not suit her. 

“I recalled my experience and problems as a menstruating woman and decided that I needed to make the experience of menstruation better for other women,” says Sujata.

Today, Avni is a homegrown brand that develops menstrual products such as sanitary pads, intimate wipes, and menstrual cups that are economical and environmentally friendly. The products are developed by rural Indian women, thus making them financially independent.

Avni also runs an outreach programme called Project DAAG (Destroying Accessibility and Acceptance Gap) that covers a female-dominated sector every year to create awareness around the associated challenges that women face during menstrual cycles.

Initial days 

Before starting Avni, Sujata spent seven to eight years in the healthcare space, working with pharmaceutical companies such as Merck Serono, Sanofi, and MSD India. She completed her BPharma from the Mumbai University-affiliated Dr LH Hiranandani College of Pharmacy before earning a MBA degree from NMIMS, Mumbai. 

Giving dignity to menstruation 

With Avni, Sujata wants to make periods a dignified experience for women. 

“The word ‘Avni’ stands for Mother Earth in Sanskrit. Mother Earth is symbolic of womanhood and we need to give menstruation its dignity as an integral part of womanhood,” she says.

However, it’s not easy to ‘talk the talk’. Sujata feels that, despite societal progress, the conversations revolving around periods are not happening openly because of inherent biases against women.  

“We have primed women to get used to the biases. As a woman myself, I consciously try not to allow biases to hamper my mission of making the conversation about menstruation happen more openly and in an educative manner. There are a lot of gaps and myths revolving around the subject that need to be addressed,” she says. 

Advice for women leaders

Sujata feels lucky to have a strong network of supportive colleagues and family members who help her stay motivated in her path. 

Acknowledging the existence of biases against women, she says, “I want to live in a future where the word ‘leaders’ should automatically denote both male and female leaders.”

Sujata advises other women to take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

“Women are capable of overcoming many challenges, better than men, that appear on the path of entrepreneurship. Women should not feel that entrepreneurship is not their cup of tea; it’s just about taking the plunge. There is a lot more support these days for women entrepreneurs than what they had earlier,” she signs off.