Ammu Joseph

Indian social entrepreneur revolutionizing menstrual health education and accessibility across rural India

Ammu Joseph is transforming menstrual health in India through her organization Menstrual Health India, which has distributed over 5 million reusable pads since 2020. A former public health researcher, she developed the Pad Project, training 20,000+ rural women as health educators and pad producers. Her work directly addresses the 23 million Indian girls who drop out of school due to lack of menstrual hygiene facilities.

Joseph pioneered India's first menstrual hygiene curriculum approved by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), now taught in 15,000 schools. Her 2021 book 《Period of Change: Reimagining Menstrual Health》 has become a standard text in public health programs. She also founded the SafePads Network, providing low-cost sanitary products through 500+ community kiosks in conflict zones like Kashmir and Nagaland.

In 2023, she partnered with UNICEF to launch India's first menstrual hygiene tracking app 'CycleSafe', now used by 2 million women. Joseph's TED Talk "The Power of Periods" (2022) has 8.7 million views, challenging cultural taboos. Her recent initiative Pad Ambassadors trains female engineers to design low-cost menstrual hygiene infrastructure in rural clinics.