- Pilot program found that 90% of Bangladeshi women garment workers faced educational, structural, and social barriers to managing menstruation safely and with dignity at work.
- The new program will work across garment factories in Bangladesh to improve menstrual health, sanitation, product access, and workplace support for women workers.
- Backed by local and brand partners, it aims to train 9,000 workers, provide 3,000 with menstrual products, and generate stronger evidence for industry-wide change.
- An independent research component, developed with LMU Munich, INSEAD, and the University of Groningen, will generate the first internationally available causal data on organizational barriers to menstrual health management in garment factories, providing the credibility and evidence base the sector needs to treat menstrual health as a non-negotiable workplace standard.
On World Menstrual Hygiene Day, NGO Drip by Drip is launching Menstrual Dignity in Fashion, a new program designed to confront one of the fashion industry’s most neglected workplace failures: many of the women making its clothes still do not have the conditions to manage their periods safely, privately, or with dignity at work – once every four weeks. The program focuses on Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector, the second-largest in the world. The industry directly employs around 4.2 million people, 45-60% of them women. Yet menstrual health is still too often treated as a private issue for workers to manage alone rather than a basic workplace standard. The result is predictable: shame, missed work, reduced comfort, lower productivity, and avoidable health risks.
The first phase of the project found that 80% of female workers reported discomfort or shame in addressing menstrual needs at work, 90% faced educational, structural, and social barriers to managing menstruation safely and with dignity, 96% said supervisors denied permission to use the bathroom, and 97% said toilets did not even have bins. At the same time, the pilot showed what can happen when menstrual health is treated as a workplace issue rather than a personal burden. In 90% of selected factories, health-related absenteeism fell and productivity improved. The pilot also helped reduce stigma, build confidence, improve menstrual health practices, and led more than 60% of participating factories to continue providing menstrual products after the project ended. But it also exposed how deep the problem runs: male participation remained low, sanitation gaps persisted, and too many women weren’t allowed adequate bathroom breaks. Generally, female workers are expected to manage their menstruation in workplaces that were simply not built for them.
Implemented with Bangladesh-based NGO Agroho Society, alongside brand partners Vaude, Amer Sports, and funders Snocks and Beechfield Brands, Menstrual Dignity in Fashion has been developed to respond to that failure from the ground up and address an issue that remains under-researched and under-prioritized across the industry. Running between September 2026 and December 2027, the program will work across 10 ready-made garment factories in Dhaka, Gazipur, and Chittagong, combining worker and management training, sanitation improvements, access to menstrual products, and factory-level systems change. A complementary independent research component, developed with LMU Munich, INSEAD, and the University of Groningen, will accompany the program to help identify which workplace levers are most effective for improving menstrual health and dignity on the factory floor. The aim is to build stronger evidence for wider change across the sector and help ensure that menstrual health is no longer treated as invisible within supply chain standards, workplace rights, and brand responsibility.
Menstrual Dignity in Fashion aims to train 9,000 workers in safe menstrual health and hygiene practices, provide 3,000 workers with safe menstrual products for 12 months, train 350 supervisors and 200 workers as Agents of Change, and indirectly impact more than 60,000 people.
The program includes:
- Training for workers and management to treat menstrual health as a workplace issue, not a taboo subject
- Improvements to factory sanitation infrastructure, including privacy measures and safe disposal systems
- Provision of free menstrual products throughout the program period, including for unplanned needs during working hours
- Support for factory leadership to integrate menstrual health into workplace procedures and occupational health responsibilities
- Targeted engagement with male workers and supervisors to help dismantle stigma and shift workplace norms
“Menstrual health is still treated as invisible in too many supply chains, despite its impact reaching into every part of a worker’s life, her health, dignity, confidence, attendance, income, and future,” said Amira Jehia, Founding Executive Director, Drip by Drip. “It is also still deeply under-researched, which has helped the industry avoid confronting the full scale of the problem. If workers lack privacy, safe sanitation, access to products, and the freedom to use the bathroom when they need to, this is not a marginal issue. It is a workplace failure built into the system.”
ATM Ridwanul Haque, Managing Director of our local partner organization Agroho, highlights: “For many women workers, menstruation still comes with silence, discomfort, and limitations that should not exist in a dignified workplace. The Menstrual Dignity in Fashion project is necessary to change that reality. It is about ensuring that women can work with comfort, confidence, and dignity every day of the month. Our hope is simple but powerful: that no woman in the workplace, particularly in RMGs/textile factories, feels embarrassed, restricted, or unsupported because of a natural biological process.”
Beli Khatun, Sewing Operator at an RGM factory, from Charigram village, Ashulia, Savar, Dhaka, added: “When menstruation starts during work, we have no choice but to buy pads ourselves – the factory doesn’t provide any. If we ask for rest, it’s allowed, but they cut money from our earned leave. The pain and discomfort often become unbearable, yet we keep working through it. We are afraid to take leave because we can’t afford the salary cuts. Sometimes it feels like our bodies are asking for rest, but our reality doesn’t allow it because work pressure is high. It’s as if our needs don’t matter – only the work does.”
Unlike initiatives that stop at awareness alone, Menstrual Dignity in Fashion has been designed as a practical workplace intervention. It addresses the full chain of barriers that prevent women from managing menstruation safely and with dignity at work: stigma, poor infrastructure, weak workplace systems, limited access to products, and the absence of management accountability. It also recognizes that meaningful change requires men to be part of the conversation, particularly in factory environments where supervisors and decision-makers shape on-the-ground conditions every day.
