How Dynamic is the Sanitary Napkins' Market in India?

In a patriarchal society like India, the process of menstruation has always considered as a taboo. Many people don’t talk about menstrual hygiene just because there is a social stigma attached to it. But with rapidly evolving world, topics like menstruation and menstrual hygiene are being discussed in Indian society, and India is heading towards removing this stigma for the wellness of women in the country.

In the initiative of transforming the society, sanitary pads have given its biggest contribution. India has become welcoming towards sanitary pads as the issue of menstrual hygiene has come forward in the society due to several reasons. This has given the sanitary pads’ market a big push in the Indian wellness industry.

In this article, we share the market dynamics of the sanitary napkins’ industry in India.

Market Status and Potential

With regards to consumption of total absorbent products in India, 73% of the consumption is contributed by feminine hygiene products, which includes sanitary napkins too.

But when we go as per the recent studies, only 20% of women in India use sanitary napkin, which has a market-size of approximately Rs 4000 crores. This means that nearly 80% of the women don’t use sanitary napkins, which is a huge number of women.

This suggests that the market is either unable to cater to the target customers or these women are unable to access the sanitary napkins.

This data also suggests that the range of target customer is very wide, and the companies that manufacture sanitary napkins could generate decent revenue if they cater the needs of the customers.

Market Catalysts

Despite being a taboo subject, menstrual hygiene has become a significant change in the society as well as in the wellness industry. What driven its growth are various factors that have evolved with time. These factors are:

• Improvement of literacy rates: With the change in time, more and more people are getting formal education and have realized that menstruation is a natural process which needs to be talked about. This has begun a rage in the situation of menstrual hygiene, which ultimately is driving the demand for sanitary napkins.
• Rapid Urbanization: As small villages are being exposed to urban civilization, people are getting aware of the concepts like menstruation that were considered to be a ‘hush-hush’ topic. This has given the sanitary napkin market an extension of target customers.
• Increase in poor menstrual hygiene-related diseases: Diseases like fungal infections, reproductive tract infection, urinary infection, STDs and many more - all of these are the by-product of poor menstrual hygiene. Sanitary napkins market has seen a growth because of these diseases as well.
• Increasing availability of sanitary napkins: Even after existing in the Indian market for so long, the sales of sanitary napkins were not so high. So there were not so many players in the market. But as the above-mentioned factors emerged, the sales started to rise, and sanitary napkins became available in many areas. This has also driven the market and has made the industry more flourished.