Sustainable cycles

Women in Himachal Pradesh switch from plastic sanitary pads to reusable menstrual hygiene products for better waste management

- JIGYASA MISHRA

EVER SINCE she came of age, Sarita Devi would collect the sanitary pads she used each month and burn them in her backyard. This was common practice in her village of Narwana Khas, Dharamshala.

“Some girls and women did not burn the pads, but disposed of them in dumpsites or waterbodies. We did not know where it all ended up,” she says.