A Bollywood movie about an inventor who created a revolutionary machine that makes cheap sanitary pads hit Indian screens this month, challenging taboos surrounding menstruation in socially conservative India. Arunachalam Muruganantham is nicknamed India's "menstrual man" for transforming the lives of poor women forced to use items like old rags, sand and leaves during their periods. He has been lauded by India's government and is now getting the star treatment with Bollywood A-lister Akshay Kumar portraying him in "Pad Man", which was released on 9th February 2018.

On any given day, more than 800 million women between 15 and 49 have their period. However, globally 1.25 billion women do not have access to a toilet during menstruation, according to the charity WaterAid.

For refugee women, fleeing their homes for safety, the challenges of a period can be even greater.

"There's no dignity in having your period when you're a refugee," Terri Harris, of the Muslim women-led development charity Global One told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The CLTS Knowledge Hub at IDS is seeking a consultant to to carry out a desk-based review on the topic of Sanitation, Men and Boys.

At a time when many national and international media report on the atrocities committed against women in India, the stories of women's leadership in development remains an oft-ignored story. As India pitches headlong into making toilets in the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), there are heart-warming stories of women leading campaigns for better lives in their panchayats against heavy odds. A small percentage of the 271,000 villages that have rid themselves of open defecation can be attributed solely to the efforts of these women.