A menstrual cup combatting period poverty

Asan

For every cup purchased, the social enterprise donates another free one to someone in India

Spotted: Lack of access to safe menstrual products is more than a hygiene issue: without it, menstruators around the world turn to potentially harmful and unsustainable alternatives. Or, they must miss out on education and employment opportunities, with 23 million adolescents in India dropping out of school every year once they hit puberty because of a lack of sanitation facilities and period products. Asan – and its innovative menstrual cup design – exists to change that.

Having grown up in Bangalore, South India, Asan Founder Ira Guha witnessed first-hand the impact of inadequate menstrual hygiene support and products. From the time she started attending university in the UK, Guha would periodically return to Bangalore with new menstrual cups for the women in her community, enabling them to continue working and attending school even during their periods.

In 2017, Guha began a Master’s in Public Policy at Harvard and sought to turn this organic action within her close community into something bigger. Guha then partnered with an engineer at the Harvard Innovation Lab and, following four rounds of user trials, created the Asan cup.

Unlike other popular cups, Asan’s design features a ring at the bottom, making it much easier to remove. Recognising that discolouration was also a common issue with popular cups, leading to users prematurely throwing them out, Guha and her team chose to produce their medical-grade silicone cups in the colour red.

Asan was officially launched in 2021 with a ‘buy one, donate one’ model, which means that for every Asan cup that’s bought, the social enterprise also donates a free one to a menstruator in India who can’t access safe products. As Guha explained to Springwise: “We just see it as a basic necessity. Everyone deserves access to the highest quality period care, it’s a fundamental human right.”

With the backing of Innovate UK’s Unlocking Potential Award, Asan also recently developed a free period-tracking app using only female developers and designers. The new platform not only lets users track their cycle, but they can also monitor the environmental impact of their periods depending on the products used.

Written By: Matilda Cox