Stand at Ease

The start-up has launched a range of products to alleviate women’s hygiene concerns.

- Sonal Khetarpa

Life is unfair for women on road trips. That’s what Deep Bajaj gathered from his female friends who refused to drink beer lest they have to use the filthy restrooms on the highway en route to Jaipur. Insensitively designed Western-style toilets on highways and public places are a hotbed of infections, posing serious health risks to women.

Having just moved out of the handmade carpets business run by his wife, to explore other business ideas, this revelation presented an opportunity to Bajaj. He set up First Step Digital with his younger brother Mohit Bajaj and friend Rahul Anand (who left the company last year) in 2013 with a view to provide solutions to women’s hygiene woes.

The first of its products was PeeBuddy – a portable urination device that enables women to stand and pee, and avoid the risk of infections. It is made using cardboard and vegetable wax, which are disposable and environment friendly, and has a funnel shaped design to fit between the legs easily. The product, says 33-year-old Deep Bajaj, is intended at helping women travellers, pregnant women, as well as those who suffer from arthritis or joint pains.