In 2017, a young college student in Kolkata noticed a fellow team member abruptly leaving a meeting. She had unexpectedly got her period and had to rush home because she couldn’t find a sanitary pad nearby. What seemed like a small incident became a life-changing moment for Sobhan Mukherjee.
Determined that no woman should have to interrupt her life because of a lack of menstrual hygiene products, Sobhan launched Project Bandhan. Armed with little more than conviction, he began placing sanitary pad boxes in public toilets across Kolkata. That simple idea would eventually earn him the title of “Padman of Bengal.”
Born into a middle-class family in Bansdroni, Kolkata, Sobhan was raised to treat everyone with dignity. His parents encouraged him to look beyond social differences, a value that later shaped his work for women and the transgender community. While pursuing his studies, he channelled his passion for social service into action rather than activism alone.
The journey, however, was anything but easy. Menstruation remains a taboo subject in many parts of India, and a young man speaking openly about it invited ridicule and hostility. Sobhan financed the initiative with his pocket money and, when funds dried up, even mortgaged four of his rings to keep it alive. His sanitary pad boxes were repeatedly vandalised, permissions were difficult to obtain, and during one awareness campaign, he was wrongfully locked inside a public toilet for nearly six hours by people opposed to his work. Yet, every damaged box was replaced, and every obstacle only strengthened his resolve.
What started with a few public toilets has grown into one of West Bengal’s most impactful menstrual hygiene movements. Today, over 70 sanitary pad vending facilities have been installed in public spaces, while his initiative, Ghore Ghore Sanitary Pad, distributes nearly five lakh packets of sanitary pads every month across West Bengal at affordable prices. Alongside distribution, Sobhan and his team conduct menstrual hygiene awareness programmes in hundreds of villages, schools and communities, helping break decades-old myths surrounding periods.
His work extends beyond menstrual health. Through the Tridhara initiative, Sobhan helped create transgender-friendly public toilets and supported low-cost sanitary pad production by transgender communities, ensuring that menstrual health conversations include everyone who menstruates.
Sobhan’s efforts have earned him several honours, including the C. Subramaniam Award from the National Foundation for India. In 2018, actor Akshay Kumar felicitated him with the title “Padman of Bengal,” recognising his relentless efforts to make menstrual hygiene accessible and to dismantle the stigma surrounding it.
Sobhan Mukherjee did not invent the sanitary pad. He did something equally important, he made conversations around menstruation possible. From a student’s pocket money to a movement touching lakhs of lives every month, his journey is proof that lasting social change often begins with one person asking a simple question: “Why should this be a taboo?”
References
https://givingforgood.org/goodness-journal/meet-the-pad-man-of-bengal-sobhan-mukherjee
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaKjJhokfhh/?igsh=ZjFkYzMzMDQzZg==
