Woman entrepreneur repurposes tech to fight Covid-19 spread

While at it, the company provides employment to women in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, parts of Africa, and even strife-torn Afghanistan.

At the onset of the second wave of Covid-19 in India, Saral Designs received assistance from the USAID-supported SAMRIDH facility, which enabled it to maintain good revenue streams, cash flows and steady sales.

Suhani Mohan, co-founder of Saral Designs, said women entrepreneurs are increasingly resolving social issues using innovative solutions. “A majority of the caregiving work (for children and elders) is still done by women, which give us unique insights…,” she said.

Elaborating on her journey, Mohan said, “We started Saral Designs in 2015, and created a range of production machines called “Swachh” to produce sanitary pads, cut distribution costs by decentralising it even as production costs were cut due to speed and automation.

However, in 2020, when the pandemic first struck, we realised that there was an acute shortage of masks. When we looked at the construction of a 3-ply surgical masks, we realised that the process of making it was similar to that of a sanitary pad. Our design team quickly started working on concepts and ways to convert our sanitary pad machine into an equipment that can also produce masks.”

With support from the Mahindra Group, the firm was able to create a 3-ply mask making machine within a week of conceptualisation.