Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters globally, leading to mass displacements. In India, floods and cyclones are driving communities out of their homes to seek refuge in camps. In 2020, Super Cyclone Amphan struck India’s coast, forcing around 800 people into a camp. 28-year old Suchitra Jana was one of the individuals staying at this camp, where she would have to queue for hours to use the bathroom or access water. Due to a lack of access to water or sanitary products, women like Jana had to use pieces of cloth as a substitute for days on end with no place to wash or dry the material. For Jana, this led to the development of a painful vaginal infection that lasted around 7 months. These ordeals transcend the campsites, as Mamu Das, a resident of the Assam area which was heavily impacted by floods in 2022, explains. After the flood wreaked havoc on her family’s livelihoods, she became unable to afford sanitary napkins and had to borrow them from shopkeepers to be repaid later. Sobhan Mukherjee, a menstrual health activist, explains that because chronic diseases are prioritized at camps in the wake of a natural disaster, women often suffer in silence when it comes to menstrual health. Even when women do speak up, they often need to travel long distances to the state’s capital in order to receive adequate treatment.
