Project Sneh, is a social entrepreneurship project launched by Enactus Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi with the objective to make reusable cloth diapers driven towards providing a sustainable, effective, and accessible alternative to open dumping, promising a healthier and cleaner world to present as well as future generations, and thereby minimizing any loss of innocent lives.
Through our need assessment surveys, we found that 7/10 households in low-income communities use plastic diapers for their infants and 2 out of 5 infants in rural areas suffered from skin allergies and rashes as a result of using plastic diapers. Surveys show that people in slums usually purchase diapers, use them and throw them in their surroundings due to lack of a proper disposable system. This generates non degradable waste along with landfill problems. Along with that, disposable diaper’s chemical composition is responsible for various health problems ranging from male infertility, fungal infection, skin infections, allergies, developmental delays to certain types of cancer among babies.
The project aims to build a strong market position and provide diapers at a cheaper price to lower and middle-income groups. Project Sneh has vowed to cure every malady with love and thus will always function to make this social cause successful. Sneh diapers are reusable cloth diapers which are made with a blend of natural fabrics. It comprises of an outer cover and an absorptive pad.The outer cover makes diaper leak proof by holding the pad at one place while at the same time ensuring breathability which is not there in case of disposable diapers.The absorptive pad has 11 layers, with absorbency similar to that of disposable diapers has dry feel fabric and at the same time hold urine upto 3 hrs.The diaper has unique sizing which fits every baby making it cost-effective in the long run.
Humans have a tendency to neglect problems until they become severe. One of which arises
due to the wrong choice of the diaper which may lead to environmental, health and social
hazards.
The project aims to create a consumer base in the rural market or low-income groups initially. It is looking forward to collaborating with NGOs, ASHA workers and anganwadis that aim at improving sanitation and urban development. Apart from the collaborations, the product can be sold by retail shops in villages, personal selling and various sanitation campaigns can be organized to create awareness about cloth diapers. The intention is to create a reliable and durable diaper brand and also promote delivery of basic sanitation facilities and create awareness regarding health and environmental concerns due to open defecation and poor sanitation habits by providing a sustainable yet economical solution.
The production of Sneh diapers is done in collaboration with Streebal NGO which has a
manufacturing capacity of 100 units per week. Out of the whole Enactus team, a dedicated
group of 15 individuals facilitate the other procedure which involves bringing collaboration,
marketing and distribution of Sneh diapers across different urban slums of Delhi NCR.