Innovations 4 HER

Life Saving Dot: The Bindi, Fighting Iodine Deficiency in India

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The Bindi is a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women, especially Hindus. Since almost every Indian woman wears a ‘bindi’, the Grey Group Singapore’s newly formed philanthropic arm, Grey for Good, collaborated with the NGO, Neelvasant Medical Foundation and Research Center, to produce iodine patches, known as the Life Saving Dot. This initiative is further supported by Talwar Bindi.

In rural India, millions of women suffer from breast cancer, fibrocystic breast disease and complications during pregnancy — many cases of which have been linked to iodine deficiencies. 

In order to combat this issue, Talwar Bindi created the Life Saving Dot, that resembles the traditional bindi, which many Indian women wear between their eyebrows, but the Life Saving Dot is coated with iodine to deliver the recommended amount of 150-220 micrograms of the nutrient daily to poor women.

It costs only 10 rupees, or 16 cents, for a packet of 30 bindis. The Life Saving Dot is currently distributed to women through health camps and clinics in several rural villages.

In a nation of 500 million women, this little dot can make all the difference between life and death. The iodine patch, worn as a bindi by the women, dispenses the daily-required amount of iodine to the wearer.

Source: Mashable

 

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