How coastal Odisha women are stepping up to contain climate change impact

If women menstruate during the floods, they have no option but to wash in floodwaters and re-use the blood-soaked cloth they use as a sanitary napkin

Hanging from the ceiling of the one-room mud hut that is Dayamanti Biswal’s home are two baskets fashioned out of rope. During the annual floods that sweep this corner of eastern India every monsoon, the few items--a comb, some fruits, few items of clothing--these baskets hold are the only things that remain dry.

“We sit on the bed for sometimes as many as 15 days, waiting for the flood waters to recede,” said the 48-year-old, who is mother to four daughters.

Biswal’s home in Sitalpur village is less than 50 m from one of the tributaries of the Baitarani river, the second