First designed in India innovative ‘menstrual cup’, launched on International Women’s Day

Pune: Care Form Labs Private Limited, a design-led social innovation start-up has redesigned ‘Menstrual Cups’ to make it easy-to-use and easy-to-switch, by its innovative user-centered design.

(Representative Image)

This also happens to be the first novel menstrual cup to be designed in India. The product is called ‘Onpery Menstrual Cup’ and has been launched on March 8, 2021 on the occasion of International Women’s Day, along with their sustainable menstrual hygiene brand called ‘Onpery’, by dignitaries from ‘AIM (Atal Innovation Mission), NITI Aayog, New Delhi’ and fraternity of ‘MIT Art, Design and Technology University, Pune’ on a virtual event organized by ‘AIC-MIT Incubator Center, Pune’. ‘Menstrual Cups’ launched by chief guest of this function Mr Manglesh Yadav, IInnovationlead, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Prof, Dr Mangesh Karad, Executive President, MIT ADT University, Dr Mohit Dubey, CEO, AIC - MIT ADT Incubator Forum, Pune, Mr Pramod Priya Ranjan, Co-founder, Care Form Labs Private Limited, and Dr Nachiket Kiran Thakur, MIT ID, Pune.

The co-innovators of the ‘Onpery Menstrual Cup’ are Mr Pramod Priya Ranjan as lead, Dr Nachiket Thalur along with Prof Dhimant Panchal, Director, MIT Institute of Design, Pune as mentors, and Ms Shreya Yengul and Ms Alomi K Parikh as fellow designers, all from an Industrial Design background.

The project has been guided by Dr Mohit Dubey, CEO, AIC - MIT ADT Incubator Forum, Pune on business strategy, and by Mrs Renu Vyas, Head of Institute, MIT School of Bioengineering Sciences and Research, Pune on the medical front. Menstrual Cup is an eco-friendly, economical, and hygienic alternative to typical sanitary napkins and tampons, but a lot of the users find it difficult-to-use and switch-to.

This design team’s innovation lies in making it user-cantered by designing it easy to insert and remove from the vagina, spill-resistant, ergonomic for people with a low cervix, assured no-leak measures, and intuitive. One cup can be reused for up to 5 years, hence replaces about 750 sanitary napkins, and is made of medical-grade silicone. It collects the blood instead of absorbing it; is rash-free, odor-free, and work-friendly, sports-friendly, and will come in three different sizes for different groups of menstruating people.

The Cup collects the blood for up to 10 hours per insertion. The novel design has been filed for Indian Patent, Indian Design Registrations, PCT (Patent Corporation Treaty) Application and soon the same will be filed for the IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) in other countries. The company is incorporated in at Ranchi, Jharkhand, and incubated at ‘AIC (Atal Innovation Centre) - MIT ADT Incubator Forum, Pune’, an incubation center which is supported by ‘AIM (Atal Innovation Mission), NITI Aayog, New Delhi’ where the design was developed, said release.

The company is a part of ‘GAP (Global Action on Poverty)’ an initiative of ‘HHH (Head Held High), Bengaluru’ Page 2/2 Bengaluru’ in support of ‘Tata Trusts’. As a part of GAP, ‘Project Asha’ of ‘LBS (London Business School), London’ has collaborated with them to develop Business Strategies. The company is also supported by ‘UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Accelerator Lab India, New Delhi’ for Pilot Program. The ‘Onpery Menstrual Cup’ has been awarded funds of up to 6 million INR so far, through a couple of grants and contests.

To this end, the first grant which company has been awarded is up to 5 million INR from ‘BIG (Biotechnology Ignition Grant)’, from ‘BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council)’ set-up by ‘DBT (Department of Biotechnology), Government of India’, to develop the Prototype, in which ‘Venture Centre, Pune’ is the ‘BIG Partner’.

The project was one of the seven national winners for the ‘#Innovate4SDGs Contest’ in November 2020, by ‘UNDP Accelerator Lab India, New Delhi’, in which they were awarded a $5000 grant amount for Pilot Program. Also, the project was the winner at ‘National Innovation Challenge 2020’ in December 2020, of ‘Youth Co: Lab India’ supported by UNDP India, Citi Foundation and AIM, NITI Aayog.

For the same, they received prize money of 0.7 million INR; and will be representing India at Asia-Pacific Youth Co: Lab Event in Malaysia soon. The project was selected as ‘Top-100 Start-ups’ in February 2021, across South-Asia (among 8 countries) in ‘Innopreneurs Start-up Contest’, an initiative by ‘Lemon Ideas, Nagpur’ said by Pramod Priya Ranjan. (UNI)