New Delhi, Nov. 8: Polymer scientist Amita Malik has developed a technology which, she hopes, will make the lives of thousands of women in India a trifle better.

Malik is part of a research team at the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research in New Delhi that has developed a technology package to convert cotton or rayon waste into low-cost sanitary napkins in rural backyards.

Scientists at the institute, after five years of work, said the production cost of each sanitary napkin would be less than a rupee. The retail price of comparable commercial products in the market ranges from Rs 2 to Rs 6 a piece.

The absorbency and design of the product are comparable to the sanitary napkins in the market that are manufactured in India through collaboration with foreign companies, they said.

The technology has been specially designed for easy adoption in rural areas. “It’s a technology package to make available relatively inexpensive napkins as well as jobs to rural women,” Malik told The Telegraph.

“It’s an example of innovation for rural India,” said R. Mashelkar, the director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, at a conference to highlight India’s emergence as a research hub.

Malik and her colleagues picked cotton and rayon waste because both contain cellulose fibre ? a material that can be modified to absorb high levels of fluid ? and are abundant as textile waste material.

The innovation involved introducing physical and chemical modifications to the waste fibre to increase absorbency, Malik said. The research team also designed an easy-to-handle machine that would enable production of the napkins even in rural areas.

“The need for such a product can never be overemphasised,” said R.K. Khandal, the institute’s director.

The institute has transferred the technology to a Hyderabad-based industry and is talking to some state governments to get rural women’s self-help groups to adopt it.