Drip by Drip targets menstrual health gaps in Bangladesh garment factories

NGO Drip by Drip has launched a new programme designed to tackle menstrual health challenges facing women in Bangladesh’s garment sector, an issue it says remains largely overlooked across global fashion supply chains.

Announced on World Menstrual Hygiene Day, the initiative, dubbed ‘Menstrual Dignity in Fashion’, will run across 10 ready-made garment factories in Dhaka, Gazipur and Chittagong between September 2026 and December 2027.

The programme follows a pilot phase that unveiled widespread structural and social barriers for female garment workers. According to Drip by Drip, 90 percent of workers surveyed faced challenges managing menstruation safely and with dignity at work, while 96 percent said supervisors denied permission to use the bathroom, and 97 percent reported factory toilets lacked sanitary bins.

The NGO said the findings highlighted how factory environments are often not designed with women’s health needs in mind, contributing to discomfort, stigma and avoidable health risks.

Despite this, the pilot also demonstrated business benefits when menstrual health was treated as a workplace issue. In 90 percent of participating factories, health-related absenteeism fell and productivity improved, while more than 60 percent of factories continued supplying menstrual products after the pilot ended.

Developed alongside Bangladesh-based NGO Agroho Society and supported by brand partners including Vaude and Amer Sports, the programme combines worker and management training, sanitation upgrades and access to menstrual products.

It aims to train 9,000 workers, support 350 supervisors and provide 3,000 women with menstrual products over a 12-month period. An independent research component involving LMU Munich, INSEAD and the University of Groningen will also seek to generate data on effective workplace levers to improve menstrual health and dignity in factories.

In a statement, Amira Jehia, founding executive director of Drip by Drip, said: “If workers do not have 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.”