In a small town in Assam, a government school teacher began missing work for four to five days every month. She loved her classroom. She did not want to be away from it. But for those few days each month, staying home felt easier than the alternative.

Her younger brother, Kiriti Acharjee, an electronics and communications engineer working in Bengaluru, noticed the pattern. When he asked her about it, what he heard changed the course of his life.

"My sister is a government school teacher. She spends eight to nine hours at school. But she didn't attend school when she was menstruating. I first thought it could have been some other reason. But I came to know that she neither had any hygienic facility to change her pads nor any products that could stay for long hours," Kiriti recalls.

That conversation sat with him for weeks. His sister was not the only one. Across India, millions of women were navigating the same five days each month with no real options, only sanitary pads that leaked, chafed, and demanded a clean toilet every few hours.

Kiriti picked up the phone and called two friends from home.

A conversation in Bengaluru that refused to end

Kiriti and Sourav Chakrabarty had grown up in the same town, Hailakandi, in Assam. Their families had lived in Pune. The two had worked their early professional years in the same city between 2015 and 2018, and in that time, one subject kept returning to their conversations: how women they knew, including the women they loved, were spending their periods.

Sourav had his own story. Back in 2016, his girlfriend, now his wife, had opened up to him about what those days felt like. She bled heavily. Changing pads every couple of hours felt like torture. Four to five days, every month, every year.

"I agree with her that it is a challenge to change pads often, and women endure many difficulties with their underwear. For five days a month, they wear something extra on top of their underwear. It causes rashes because of the plastic they wear for four to five days. Wearing one for 24 hours is very uncomfortable," says Sourav, now 34.

Around them, the silence began to lift. Their women colleagues spoke openly about cramps and leaks. Their friends complained about the same things their mothers had endured without ever saying a word.

"As we grew up, we noticed that the neighbours' families or our parents' generation were not quite open to talking about periods. However, the present generations never hesitate. Our women friends and colleagues would frequently mention 'cramps' in their lower stomachs, as well as pad leaks. This kind of experience led me to conclude that this was the real problem," Sourav says.

Then came Satyajit Chakraborty. A senior to Kiriti, from a tiny town called Nivia, about 100 km from Silchar, Satyajit was working at Capgemini in Bengaluru. His sister carried a heavier burden than most.

A sister who sometimes forgot she was bleeding

Satyajit's sister is a schizophrenia patient. The illness affects everything, including her ability to remember the most basic things about her own body.

"Females don't usually go through pain or rashes, but they also face many issues during menstrual cycles. My sister is a schizophrenia patient. She usually forgets to change her pads, sometimes........

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