Namrata Dutta Karamchandani Is Making Menstrual Health a Community Conversation
Through Anahat For Change Foundation, Namrata Dutta Karamchandani has spent years working on menstrual health, livelihoods, education and gender rights, reaching thousands of women, adolescents and community members across India.
Abhinav Kumar
10/7/2026
Namrata Dutta Karamchandani Is Making Menstrual Health a Community Conversation
Namrata Dutta Karamchandani's work in social impact began with research.
Originally from Giridih in Jharkhand, she grew up seeing social and economic inequalities around her. Her professional journey later took her into social research, where she worked on field studies, data collection and impact assessments involving organisations including UNICEF and Gallup India's World Poll.
That experience shaped the way she looked at development work. Research could identify a problem, but lasting change often depended on whether communities were actually involved in addressing it.
In 2018, Namrata and Purvi Tanwani co-founded Anahat For Change Foundation, a nonprofit working around gender equality, education, menstrual health and access to rights and government services.
Why menstrual health became an important part of the work
Some of Anahat's early work brought Namrata closer to the everyday realities surrounding menstruation.
Field studies across different parts of India exposed the team to conversations around menstrual products, hygiene, disposal, myths and restrictions placed on women and girls.
Rather than treating menstruation only as a health issue, Anahat began approaching it as a question of dignity, information and access.
Its programmes include workshops for women, adolescents, men and boys, creating spaces where menstruation can be discussed more openly.
The organisation also promotes reusable menstrual products, including cloth pads and menstrual cups, while connecting menstrual health work with livelihood opportunities for women.
Turning menstrual health into a livelihood opportunity
One of Anahat's initiatives, Unnati, combines menstrual health awareness with income generation.
Women are trained to make reusable cloth pads and can participate as local sellers and menstrual health facilitators. This creates an opportunity for women to earn while also helping other women in their communities access information and menstrual products.
The organisation has previously reported training hundreds of women to make cloth pads and distributing reusable products across West Bengal.
Give.do currently lists Anahat as having provided livelihoods to more than 1,200 women, distributed more than 400,000 hygiene kits to over 100,000 vulnerable menstruators and reached more than 20,000 adolescent girls through awareness sessions and hygiene-kit distribution. These figures describe Anahat's broader organisational work rather than Namrata's individual contribution.
Working with girls beyond menstrual health
Anahat's work also extends into the wider challenges faced by adolescent girls.
In Koderma, Jharkhand, the organisation works with communities affected by educational and economic vulnerabilities connected to mica mining. In Alipurduar, West Bengal, its work includes children and families in closed tea-garden communities, where loss of livelihoods can lead to migration and increased risks for children.
The organisation also runs programmes focused on gender-based violence, discrimination and the rights of women and girls.
This wider approach reflects how Namrata's work has developed over time. Menstrual health is one entry point, but the larger focus is on giving women and adolescents greater access to knowledge, opportunities and systems that affect their lives.
Reaching thousands through community-led programmes
In 2025-26, Anahat reached more than 9,472 adolescents, women and community members across its programmes, according to a recent profile of Namrata published by The Logical Indian.
The organisation has worked across Jharkhand and West Bengal, with programmes involving schools, communities, women-led livelihood initiatives and local institutions.
Its work during the COVID-19 pandemic also included distributing 7,500 menstrual hygiene kits in and around West Bengal. Anahat collaborated with UNICEF during the pandemic to produce 2.5 lakh masks through self-help groups and support their distribution in Kolkata's slum communities.
These efforts became part of a broader model that connects health, livelihoods and community participation rather than treating each issue separately.
Making space for men and boys in the conversation
Another part of Namrata's work has been bringing men and boys into conversations about gender and menstrual health.
Anahat has participated in collaborative work focused on helping adolescent boys understand menstruation, gender equality, masculinity and allyship.
The reasoning is straightforward: menstrual stigma does not exist only among those who menstruate. Families, classmates and communities also influence how menstruation is understood and discussed.
By involving boys and men, the organisation attempts to make menstrual health a shared social conversation rather than an issue women and girls are expected to handle alone.
A wider idea of empowerment
Namrata's work through Anahat sits at the intersection of several issues that are often discussed separately: menstrual health, education, livelihoods, gender rights and access to public services.
The organisation's approach is built around helping women and adolescents gain knowledge and capabilities that can be used within their own communities.
The result is work that goes beyond distributing a product or conducting a one-time awareness session. Women are trained to become facilitators, adolescents are encouraged to understand their rights, and communities are brought into conversations that are often avoided.
As of 2025-26, Anahat's reported reach had crossed 9,472 people in its current programmes. Behind that number are years of work in communities where access to information, healthcare, livelihoods and opportunities can still depend heavily on circumstances outside an individual's control.
Namrata Dutta Karamchandani's work continues through that community-based approach, connecting conversations around women's health with the larger question of who gets access to knowledge, dignity and opportunity.
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