Tamil Nadu - Dindigul   

Gandhigram Trust plans new products

— PHOTO: G. KARTHIKEYAN

For income generation: Training programme on napkin making under way at Gandhigram near Dindigul on Monday.

DINDIGUL: With a view to expand its market and meet the needs of premium customers, Gandhigram Trust is planning value addition to its products and manufacture new goods. Its sanitary napkin manufacturing unit is working on different kinds of baby diapers using technology from Rural Technology Action Group (RUTAG) of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, according to M.R. Rajagopal, trust secretary.

He was speaking at a five-day training programme on manufacture of sanitary napkins conducted for non-governmental organisations and self-help groups from Uttarkhand and West Bengal at Gandhigram near here on Monday.

The trust extended its help in establishing sanitary napkin units at Uttarkashi, Guwahati and Kodaikanal with financial assistance from the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor through RUTAG-IIT. Under an initiative of IIT-Khargpur, the trust would establish the fourth unit in West Bengal soon. Besides marketing napkins, creating an awareness of hygiene and personal healthcare among rural women and adolescent girls had also been undertaken.

The trust was also exploring to utilise the services of Department of Science and Technology to improve quality and scale up use of alternative raw materials to cut costs without hampering quality. “We are working on adult diapers also,” he said.

In his address, RUTAG project consultant S. Gopalakrishnan said that dissemination of low cost technology in villages was their prime aim. Technology should reach villages for improving the rural economy. “We must spread more agro-processing technologies among farmers and help them add value to their produce.”

RUTAG advisor M. Ravindran expressed satisfaction over the association with the trust in developing various rural technologies in the manufacture of many products such as napkins, soap base, ready-to-use natural dye powders and perfume compounds. Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Textile Management Professor S. Ganesan spoke on technology improvement in napkin manufacture. The trust’s Managing Trustee R. Kousalya Devi spoke. Team coordinator Chakraborty said that demand for napkins was growing. The team members visited a napkin making unit.

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