Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SR)

New Delhi, Jul 26: Two girls, from IIT Goa and IIT Bombay, have become the talk of the town with their new invention of an inexpensive and affordable devise to clean reusable sanitary pads and reduce biomedical waste.

Devyani Maladkar from IIT Goa and Aishwarya Agarwal from IIT Bombay are the ones who invented a devise named "cleanse right". The girls have reportedly filed a patent for the devise that they say will cost around Rs 1,500.

Aishwarya Agarwal, an electrical engineering student at IIT-Bombay told PTI reporter that the disposable sanitary pads are made of non-biodegradable plastic and thus end up in biomedical waste landfills. "The use of disposable sanitary pads by women during menstruation has skyrocketed with increasing awareness about proper menstrual hygiene,” she added.

While stressing on the fact that it takes 500-800 years for a synthetic sanitary pad to decompose in landfills Aishwarya said "A single woman generates up to 125 kg of non-biodegradable waste through her menstruating years."

How does the devise work?

The devise works without electricity; it has a pedal- plunger that move up and down inside of a water filled chamber. The inexpensive devise squeeze out menstrual blood from cloth pads while rinsing them with water. “It can also be used to wash other hygiene concerned garments like baby clothes," said Devyani Maladkar, a student of IIT-Goa.

Devyani and Aishwarya introduced their product at ‘Invent@IITGN’, a six-week annual summer programme at IIT-Gandhinagar. Invent@IITGN, originated in the US (the program has the US trademark “Invention Factory”), is an intensive summer program that focuses on inventing.