By Padmapriya T S
Sanitation First is a UK-based non-profit that has worked in India for more than 20 years. Its work centers on three interconnected pillars: water, women, and the world, with climate integrated across all of them.
Water: We work on water body rejuvenation, installing safe water infrastructure like solar pumps and drinking water systems, and organizing climate literacy programs in schools. We have built a dedicated year-round curriculum based on activities across five themes: Nutrition and food waste, Plastic waste, Water conservation, Sanitation and hygiene, and Environmental cleanliness. Students learn how to take local action on the Sustainable Development Goals. Student-led groups called child cabinets then help sustain those efforts through school- and village-level projects.
Women: We work across the life cycle of women’s health, from improving water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in birth centers and schools to advancing menstrual health education.
We focus on menstrual disorders and the linkage between menstrual health and climate. We lead training programs and awareness-building on heat stress and menstrual health for students, community members, sanitation workers, agricultural laborers, and other groups exposed to extreme heat stress. Part of those trainings is a focus on mitigation strategies.
We also work with women on climate-smart livelihoods, which to us are circular, like regenerative agriculture, recycling waste, and composting.
The World: We do water body rejuvenation work and trainings as part of the district climate change missions. We also promote climate change awareness across all aspects of society to understand the linkages between climate change and livelihoods, and to begin implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies. We create zero-carbon footprint Green schools and early childhood learning centers, and work with both men and women on climate-smart livelihoods, which to us are circular, like regenerative agriculture, recycling waste, and composting.
A Mission Rooted in Climate Resilience
Although we have only explicitly framed our work as climate action in recent years, our mission has always been rooted in climate resilience. For more than two decades, we have promoted waterless EcoSan toilets that transform waste into resources. The toilets conserve water while converting urine into plant nutrients and human waste into compost. Today, Sanitation First is the only organization in India with more than 5,000 EcoSan toilets still in operation.
Our work has always been climate-focused – from the beginning, we have been providing household toilets that do not waste water. We see every waste stream as a resource. That’s why we have been working on waterless toilets in various agroclimatic zones, simply because we felt that water is wasted every time someone uses a toilet. We started building ecosan toilets to convert waste into resources. Since the toilets require little or no flushing, the water that would otherwise be wasted is available for other purposes such as irrigation, domestic use, or industry.
Championing the Link Between Climate Change and Menstrual Health
We believe that the intersection of climate change, heat stress, and menstrual health remains largely overlooked.
In India, where more than 380 million women menstruate, most government programs focus on providing menstrual products to school-aged children, but few address how climate change affects menstrual health or what adaptation and mitigation strategies women need. Rising temperatures, heat stress, and climate-related disasters all impact menstrual health. Governments and communities are investing in disaster preparedness plans for climate change disasters. Yet, menstrual health is rarely included in these discussions, either because of stigma or because men are the ones making the plans.
Sanitation First is working to advocate for the inclusion of menstrual health in disaster preparedness. Even as a relatively small organization, we are bringing attention to these overlooked challenges. We want more people to recognize menstrual health as a critical climate and public health issue. Our goal is to inspire others to join the movement to recognize that menstrual health is a fundamental human right.
The Road Ahead
Our next priority is replication and scale. We want to expand our work beyond Tamil Nadu and influence climate policy across India. While every state in India has a climate change action plan, menstrual health is largely absent from these strategies. We hope our work will encourage greater public health investment and stronger policies so our approaches can be replicated and scaled across India.