#MondayMenstruation: Meet The Man Who is Setting Up Sanitary Pad Dispensers In Public Toilets

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Imagine a world without social activists. Its better not to. For these people with their selfless nature bring quiet changes in the world we live in. And many times, we are not aware of the work they do or the lives they have affected. 24-year-old Sobhan Mukherjee is one such person who chose to make a difference in the world with his service.

Hailing from Kolkata, Sobhan’s act of creating stickers that read Tridhara, (the third gender) and putting it outside public toilets for separate sections for the third gender, in certain districts of West Bengal had already touched hearts 3 years back. Sobhan is now also hailed as the ‘Padman’ of Kolkata after the work he has been doing for menstruation by setting up sanitary pad dispensers in public toilets.

“After a colleague’s absence at a meeting, when I called to check up on her, she told me that she had got her period on the bus and didn’t have a pad so she had to return home. That got me thinking how thousands of women must be deprived of attending work, school, sports because of this”, says Sobhan. “A basic availability of sanitary pads in public toilets could solve this issue for many”, he thought.

So Sobhan bought 20 packets of sanitary pads and kept it on a table in a public toilet. His parents were so supportive of his act that his mom hugged him and his dad even funded him for more. “I have been brought up with the ideology that you must help the people around you”.

“After posting about my initiative on social media strangers came forward with financial support. But people started hoarding the free napkins. That’s when I replaced the table with a dispenser machine made out of ice-cream cup box and when that didn’t work either, I started charging Rs. 2 for each pad.”

1st bandhan pad dispenser — Pad dispenser made from ice cream box

Soon Sobhan was conducting menstrual education campaigns in villages for creating menstrual hygiene awareness and break taboos surrounding it. After a lot of hesitation, the villagers got comfortable to share their problems with a man.

“I also make a documentary on menstrual hygiene to create awareness. Also with the help of local authorities, I set up medical camps for women who complained about a lack of lady doctors to treat their lady problems.”

In a year, Sobhan had built sanitary pad dispensers across 70 public toilets in Kolkata under the name Bandhan and was awarded Rs. 25,000 cash by the CM, Mamata Banerjee.

“With that money, I bought vending machines. I have now developed an app where you can track the nearest washroom with a sanitary pad dispenser. I want these sanitary pad dispensers and apps to be available in all the metros of India so that more women across the country can have easy access to sanitary napkins when they need”.

Sobhan has come up with a concept of Self Help Group in villages where with just a loan of Rs. 10000, a group of women can set up a manufacturing unit of sanitary napkins which can be sold at a very affordable rate. “They can breakeven at 5 months and return the loan at 0% interest and with the profit, they can use it to rotate the recurring expense. This model helps to not only to generate employment to this SHG but also empowers the women of that area by giving them access to low-cost sanitary napkins and helps break the taboo surrounding menstruation”.

This concept has already been successfully implemented by him in 2 units of Sunderbans. Lack of funds is what is preventing him to expand this concept to other villages.

“If corporate and organizations can come forward and support us in this initiative, very soon access to sanitary napkins to most women in rural areas will be possible”, says Sobhan.

Sobhan’s work has got him recognition from various sectors but what he requires is financial assistance. With the salary he earns from an NGO, he puts in most of his earnings for his cause, as he has been doing since he was 20 years old.

If you think that the fabulous work of this young man needs to be supported then like and share this article to make sure it can reach the right channels and he can receive the support he needs.

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Introducing Balaji, one of the strongest voices in the LGBT community in India, who went through and overcome many adversities. Now they are a TEDx speaker, and an influencer outreach professional and recently starting an IGTV talk series called #LetsEducate where people from their community are encouraged and motivated to embrace their identity. Their story is not for the faint-hearted but made it easier for me to endure as their attitude had spice, sass, and a whole lot of strength.

Early Years

Balaji, being a Palakkad Iyer brought up in Kolkata, had quite a childhood filled with uncomfortable situations. Being a sexual abuse survivor by the age of 8-9, being lured by chocolate and candy was abused by a grown man. Finally, after realizing what was happening, their strength took over as they took to themselves to push them away.

After that ordeal having realized that they were gay by the age of 10, which is quite early by Indian standards, lived in the closet till they went to college. Also endured a lot of bullying through this time often being called names and insults on a normal basis.

College Life & Struggles

Having come out to their best friend of 10 years in the first year of college, they were abandoned because he felt that Balaji was unnatural. This had them again question their existence. Their college life was really the lowest point, and their beginning as an openly gay personality is quite funny because having lied to their class about a secret girlfriend just as a security measure, this period was really their coming of age, as dealing with depression and extreme self-esteem issues. Balaji having trouble with their identity had taken a bunch of antidepressants in an attempt at suicide. Thankfully Balaji survived it, but this situation was really an epic turnaround for them. What’s funny is when by the end of college they took it to themselves to come out to their whole class, everyone in the class said they already knew. “They gave me huge hugs and I made a lot of friends in return,” adds Balaji with a smile.

Coming Of Age

After college, Balaji had been working in Delhi and was getting numerous marriage proposals. Balaji had to shoo them away by saying that they didn’t want to get married as an escape tactic from the topic, as their mum didn’t know about their orientation.

After being invited to speak at a TEDx event Balaji took on themselves to come out at this TED Talk and had an underlying theme about gender stereotypes, being a crossdresser as well. I am not a big fan of this term. I think the term Queen needs to be reclaimed by the community to describe cross-dressing, it has a positive connotation but unfortunately, through history, it was used as an insult, but it needs to be reclaimed like how the African-American Community reclaimed the N-word.
Now, as TED talks get uploaded on the internet and there’s no way to avoid it, Balaji’s brother sent this TED talk video to their Mum, who called them home immediately as she was sick. So they went and finally gave the ultimate truth to their mum. She is the hero in this situation because as it can be difficult in our culture to accept it, she chose to do it and saw a path of happiness even though she knew about some of the stigmatization attached to having an openly gay son.

At Present

Now Balaji works in celebrity brand management, and also has contributed to Gaylaxy, an LGBT magazine. They continue to empower and give motivational speeches to those who had stories like them or in some cases even worse which is really important for their community because there’s a lot of abuse that comes in the way of accepting who you are especially when you’re in the LGBT spectrum.

Balaji’s strength is the main superpower that has brought them here, because in our culture, as strong you may be, they have to be quadruple times as strong just to survive through a culture that is very unaccepting and judgemental. Balaji adds, “You have to be the change to bring the change.”

This Is Balaji for you, a voice for the fallen.

Follow them @queeromania