Personal hygiene is essential for human beings, but
there are many who reside in areas with water scarcity, in extreme
weather conditions, or are unable to bathe because of old age.
Thanks to
an IIM alumnus, there may be a way out for such people.
It
was while working closely with soldiers on a project that the idea of a
waterless body bath and shampoo popped up in Puneet Gupta’s mind, and
that’s how Clensta was launched.
Clensta, formed by
joining two words — cleaning and instant — is a start-up that helps
people bathe without water.
Currently, it caters to the personal hygiene
needs of soldiers deployed in areas where there is a lack of water or
the weather is extreme, such as Siachen, Jammu and Kashmir and the
Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The
body wash is very easy to use. A user just has to take 25 ml and massage
it gently all over the body. And then wipe dry with a towel.
“Not
only does it take away dirt, dust and odour, it also maintains the Ph
of the skin and keeps it moisturised,” says Gupta. “My previous project
gave me an opportunity to work with soldiers in the para-military
forces. I saw soldiers not being able to move from their positions for
two-four days.
It was then that I realised that the personal hygiene was
a major concern for them,” Gupta, an IIM-Calcutta alumnus, who is also
the founder and CEO of Clensta, told
Among
those who helped Gupta in this endeavour is Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Delhi, which assisted the project, and is a research
partner and shareholder with Clensta.
“When the team
came up to us, they had a rough idea of what they wanted. We assisted
them in choosing stable and safe ingredients for the products,” said
Anurag S Rathore, Professor, IIT-Delhi, and Scientific Advisor to
Clensta. Rathore is also working on getting the products to comply with
global standards.
Clensta
products, which were launched in August 2017, can also be used by
hospital staff for patients, home healthcare, frequent travellers, and
adventure enthusiasts.
“We keep taking our clients on
treks. I think the product is of maximum utility for trekkers as they
cannot bathe for 3-4 days,” says Alankar Chandra, CEO of Wild Voyager, a
wildlife tourism company.
Says Dr Praveen Tripathi, a
Delhi-based psychiatrist: “I have patients suffering from dementia and
this helps in maintaining their personal hygiene, which earlier was a
daunting task for family.”
Clensta plans to sell
around one lakh bottles each of waterless shampoo and waterless body
bath by this fiscal year-end. Currently, the products are available only
in the B2B market at ₹499 and ₹549 per 100 ml, respectively.
Though
priced on the higher side, Gupta claims that 100 ml of the body wash
will help save 350 litres, adding that an average human being spends 70
litres on a bath with conventional soap.
“We will be entering the
business-to-customer market in a year.”
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