In Conversation With Sujata Pawar
1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization and the products/services that your brand offers.
Avni, founded in April 2021 in Thane, Maharashtra is a young start-up focused on holistic women’s wellness inspired by Nature, GrandMoms and Ayurveda. Avni is founded by the husband-wife duo -Sujata Pawar and Apurv Agrawal, to provide toxin free, functional menstrual care products for women as per their flow, body type and comfort. The brand offers well researched, innovative, tested products to facilitate women hygiene during periods. The co-founders have worked relentlessly to help Avni emerge as a reliable women's health brand with the support of medical experts, 24X7 helpline, and conscious products right from menarche to menopause.
Avni, provides safer and healthier menstrual hygiene products and services claiming that to be a skin-friendly, environment friendly and chemical free choice. The brand also caters to innovative and eco-friendly menstrual healthcare products for women. The brand’s recent products includes Avni Anti-microbial reusable cloth pads- Avni Lush & Avni Fluff, Avni natural cotton sanitary pads, Avni period wear wash, Avni Menstrual Cup & Wash, and Avni Antibacterial soothing intimate care wipes. These products are best suitable especially for those women who have sensitive skin and are looking for better organic and infection free products for smooth periods. These products are available online on multiple ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, OneGreen, ThePinkBox, Smytten, Woovly.
2. Please highlight the brand’s mission and objectives. In short, tell us about the brand’s journey since its inception.
It all started 8 years back when Avni’s founder; Sujata Pawar, had an uncomfortable experience using commercially available sanitary pads which led to rashes and skin-related infections. It was such bad rashes, that despite being a lean person made her think and dig deeper into the issue. It was then, when she started searching for alternatives that are not only skin friendly but also eco friendly and do not harm the sanitation worker in any way. When she realised that none of the existing brands in the industry were catering to these aspects, she decided to take it further and started working towards providing a better solution. After having a well-researched, and a thorough idea of what she was idealising in her mind, she shared it as a business idea with Apurv, who was equally excited to work on it. From that point, the duo together started developing Avni reusable cloth pad which is also India's first tested cloth pad that not only absorbs but also protects from infections.
3. What is the biggest USP that makes your brand stand out from the other D2C brands in the startup ecosystem?
Avni, focuses on holistic and sustainable women’s health both from Inside and outside for a healthy menstrual cycle. Along with this, the brand has selflessly contributed all its efforts towards empowering rural women, while detoxifying the menstrual cycle of women both inside and out. The brand has been significantly pivoting all its efforts towards creating menstrual care products that are skin-friendly, chemical-free, and are environmental-friendly as well. While moulding the idea into reality, the co-founders witnessed that the traditional methods that women used during their menstrual cycle were way more effective than the current commercially available and popularised options. This helped them in digging deeper into the concept and unfolding the better alternatives for all the women out there who want to make a healthier choice and switch onto a better option.
4. Menstruation is still seen as a social taboo in India. What made you think about entering into the entrepreneurial world with the idea of being a menstrual health/sanitary start-up?
India, as a country, has a diverse range of cultures and diversities that stem from traditional and self-invented customs. Menstruation has always been a hush-hush topic, a silence on nature and reality but slowly but steadily, India is moving away from treating menstruation as a social taboo and recognising the significance of establishing a healthy hygiene-care ecosystem.
Sujata's own experience with trying out multiple menstrual products prompted her decision to bring a social taboo like menstrual hygiene at the forefront by introducing Avni; a startup focused on menstrual healthcare. Sujata launched Avni to assist women in making the eco-friendly switch after recognising the limitations of conventional plastic pads and the benefits of reusable cloth pads.
5. What according to you can be the best advice on maintaining menstrual hygiene?
Menstruation is a common and a natural phenomenon that every woman experiences in their life. Maintaining menstrual hygiene has developed as a growing concern over the recent years. The first piece of advice for maintaining menstrual hygiene is to talk about it openly with no hesitation and get ample knowledge about the same. Discussing the issue with all members of society including brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers can be another helpful advice in order to unveil a social stigma. Menstruation is not just a blood stain, it has much more added to it that needs to be understood in a mindful way.
6. What are the social initiatives taken by Avni to spread awareness about menstrual healthcare and hygiene in the society where people still restrict themselves to discuss such hush-hush topics?
Avni has been promptly working towards creating awareness around menstrual healthcare practices. The brand has recently launched the project -D.A.A.G. under which they’ve collaborated with local NGOs to conduct informative and awareness sessions with the young girls from rural communities and the remotest of the areas. Even during the lockdown, Avni was constantly giving its best, offering its informative series of sessions and catering virtually to the best extent possible. When they initiated the idea of launching Avni products, they realised that people were still unaware of all the existing menstruation healthcare practices and had a lot of queries about the same. As a result,
Avni launched India’s First 24 X 7 period helpline to aid better services to their customers and especially the rural women residing in slums and poor communities.
7. What piece of advice would you suggest to the young entrepreneurs entering into the industry?
Being a part of a technologically advanced era, we need innovation and more creative minds to bring the best of ideas that could cater to the health needs of women. I'd like to advise all the new entrepreneurs aspiring to enter into the industry, to step up and design models that debunk common long-held misconceptions about menstruation. When I had launched Avni into the industry, I discovered that commercial corporations had demonised cloth-based pads as being unhealthy. Our grandmothers have always practised good menstruation hygiene, wearing cloth pads, and living far longer and healthier lives. As a result, when entrepreneurs re-engineer, they must go deeper, rebuild confidence, and restore it in order to mould their idea into a sustainable option.
