The Better India · 16 days ago

How Surbhi Kumari Is Breaking Period Taboos and Empowering 25000 Women in Bihar Villages

Surbhi Kumari left journalism and a comfortable career to return to rural Bihar, where she grew up learning that menstruation was something to manage in silence and shame. She remembered her own terror at age 13, bleeding through her skirt in class with no understanding of what was happening to her body, and she recognized that same fear and confusion in thousands of women who believed bathing during periods would worsen bleeding, who used sand or ashes because they had nothing else, who hid their cycles even from their own sisters. Through her initiative Sabla, she created Periodshala sessions in schools and villages where "when a girl asks a question without lowering her eyes, that is impact," and established a manufacturing unit producing affordable biodegradable pads while training local women to run it. The work has reached over 25,000 women and girls, but the deeper transformation shows in smaller moments: sisters now speaking openly about their cycles, a Mahadalit woman who was never allowed to leave her house now confidently leading menstrual health sessions in her community, and women choosing what works for their own bodies without shame.