A student-led project in Delhi shows how an environmental initiative can evolve when field observations reveal a different need.
Green Closet began with a familiar sustainability question: what happens to clothing that people no longer use? Anika Singhania, a student at Charterhouse in the UK, began exploring it through an essay on fast fashion. She then organised clothing collection drives in Delhi, directing garments towards distribution or recycling.
School visits connected with that work revealed a different problem. Anika noticed girls missing from classrooms. Conversations with teachers and principals suggested that menstrual stigma, limited health education and inadequate access to suitable products were among the barriers affecting attendance.
The observation prompted a change in how Green Closet used the material it collected. In partnership with the NGO Pinkishe, the initiative began turning suitable cloth into reusable menstrual pads. It also introduced educational booklets and school conversations about menstrual health.
Viewed as a sustainability project, the model is more involved than collecting clothes and finding a second use for them. The input material must be assessed for suitability. Production and distribution need to reach the schools where demand exists. Users need clear guidance on washing, drying and care. Without those steps, the fact that a product is reusable says little about whether it will be practical or acceptable in daily life.
The project also illustrates a principle familiar to technology and operations teams: the first problem identified is not always the most important one to solve. The initial objective was to reduce clothing waste. Field observations exposed a related need, and the proposed solution changed. That is a stronger basis for designing a service than assuming that available materials alone determine what communities require.
Measurement is the next challenge. Green Closet has reported an improvement related to girls’ attendance in the communities where it works, but a percentage on its own cannot establish whether the pads or education programme caused that change. A useful assessment would define the starting attendance pattern, track participation over time and distinguish menstrual-related absence from other reasons girls miss school. Feedback on comfort, product care and continued use would be equally important.
Those questions matter if the initiative expands. More collection drives would increase the supply of cloth, but effective scale would also depend on consistent quality checks, reliable local distribution, education delivered in appropriate languages and a way for schools to report what is working.
Green Closet’s development offers a practical example of design informed by use. A waste stream became a potential source of material; school visits revealed a need; and the response combined a physical product with information and outreach. Its longer-term impact will depend on how well that complete system works for the girls it is intended to serve.