Press Release

By Express News Service,
BENGALURU : To promote use of eco-friendly products during periods, Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust (LSN Trust) has kicked off an awareness campaign ‘Sustainable Menstruation and Save the Environment’ for underprivileged women and young girls.
The campaign highlights three benefits: no rash, no trash, less cash.The campaign raises awareness on the harmful effects of using sanitary napkins. One of the main topics of discussion is women’s health and hygiene. Series of workshops will be conducted to promote the use of bio-degradable menstrual products such as reusable cloth pads. The trust also hopes to help underprivileged women create livelihoods by providing training and materials to make low-cost cloth pads.
While addressing the audience, Dr Meenakshi Bharath emphasised on the impact of sanitary napkins on users, but also the environment. She also pointed out how plastics from sanitary napkins can induce itching, irritation, and vaginal discharge. She advocated the use of alternatives such as cloth pads that can be washed and worn and menstrual cups that last for five years, depending on usage patterns. She said that the average woman uses 120-plus sanitary napkins annually, costing at least `1,200 per annum. Cost of a set of four cloth pads is `400 and a menstrual cup is `450. “They have three benefits: no rash, no trash, less cash.”For details, contact: nanjundayya.nalini@gmail.com

The young face of the Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust, Niska is a dynamic well-travelled advertising professional with a post graduate degree from London, UK. She grew up with the social ethics that her parents and grandparents believed in and even as a young child, used to accompany her mother to the various 4S Foundation projects. As gen next of Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust with a forward thinking global perspective, she is looking to expand the reach of the Foundation into new areas. She feels especially passionately about new-age projects like alternative energy for villages, eco friendly industries and sustainability programmes.

A very successful corporate Image Consultant, who lived in Africa and the Middle East. A personal tragedy, the loss of her surgeon husband, forced her to step out of her secure comfort zone and become a financially independent woman, capable of providing her three children with a secure future. A dynamic Rotarian and Founder Director of The Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust, her goal is to enable young women to fend for themselves and become productive members of society. In a world where so many urgent social problems need tackling, she believes that pooling resources, partnering with like-minded, influential individuals and involving them in social change projects is really the smart way forward.

Subbarao, a highly successful corporate head, also wore many different hats over the course of his illustrious life and career. He was many things to many people. Influential CEO of a multinational company, caring husband and father, Sai baba devotee, composer of popular hymns and bhajans, author of a devotional book and co founder of the 4S Foundation which was later renamed Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust. He passed away in the mid-2000’s but the work he started in collaboration with his wife and daughter lives on.

Lalitha Subbarao is the inspiration behind the Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust. Armed with a strong social conscience and a broad based global education (Masters from Ohio State University, USA) plus a deep desire to help disadvantaged women, her dream is now being realized through the efforts of the Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust. Lalitha was a woman of substance who worked quietly and steadily towards the betterment of those around her. Besides being a role model to her children, she authored and published two books–Nanu Mattu America in Kannada (America and I) describing her student life there in the mid 1950’s and a comprehensive book – Festivals of India. She rightly believed that women must be educated, empowered and financially independent. An educated wife and mother would in turn be a strong positive influence in the family and society at large, just as she was. Her legacy is carried on by the Lalitha Subbarao Nanjundayya Memorial Trust.