Scott M. Curran: This week, the world celebrates International Women's Day, and we're gonna do the same right here. By talking about women's health, cultural stigmas, economic growth, and human dignity. Let's start with some simple facts. 

Half the world's population is women. Every single one of us was born from a woman, and every one of those births began with a mised period. 

Yep, I said it. Period. 

For some people, even hearing that word feels a little awkward, which is kind of my point. If something this universal makes us squirm, maybe it's worth leaning into because here's the reality. Menstruation is not a niche issue. It's biology, it's economics, it's education, it's dignity and it's opportunity.

It's also the center of today's conversation. 

Here's phrase you may not hear every day. Menstrual equity, I'm gonna say it again. Menstrual equity. There's a good chance you've never really thought about what that means, but you should. Because it affects women, men, families, workplaces, and entire economies.

If talking about menstruation feels uncomfortable, good. Growth usually starts there. 

Welcome to Better Good. The show where you learn how the best do good, and how you can too. I'm your host Scott Curran. For 25 years I've served as a corporate lawyer and in-house general counsel, and an advisor to some of the most extraordinary social impact work spanning the private sector, philanthropy and social enterprises. On this podcast, I talk to the innovators re-imagining how the world does good, bringing you candid and inspiring conversations and practical advice, guidance, and tools you can use in your life and work. If doing good is something you care about, you're in the right place—because the world's biggest problems won't wait, and neither should you. 

My guest today is Megha Desai, the President of the Desai Foundation, a nonprofit that is working to break down economic and health barriers that millions of women and girls in rural India face. Imagine having to choose between buying menstrual products and other basic necessities of everyday life. This is known as period poverty. And Megha is on a mission to eliminate it. 

The Desai Foundation delivers programs for vocational training and entrepreneurship to support Indian women in building resilience and self-reliance because menstruation is about so much more than health. It's an intersectional issue that has high stakes for families, careers, and even entire economies.

As you'll hear, it wasn't Megha’s plan to become a leading voice on menstrual equity or to lead a nonprofit at all. Far from it. She came from the world of advertising and branding, but it's those skills as a storyteller that have turned her into a leader in global women's issues and allowed her to expand the dec decide foundation to impact over 8 million women's lives.

Each of us exists because a woman missed her period. This episode, let's celebrate that. 

This is Better Good. And here's my conversation with Megha Desai.

Scott M. Curran: I know a lot about your story. And I think people who look you up can find out interesting things about your story, and we're gonna talk about some of those. But I want to ask you about a part of your story I don't know the answer to, and I'm curious to know if you've ever been asked it or shared it. Which is, if you think about the concept in your life and your work of doing good, across any dimension of it. What is your earliest memory in life that you realized doing good was a thing that people did?And then perhaps maybe another time that you might be able to do too. 

Megha Desai: I love this question. I have never been asked this question. My father told me this story recently, actually. I think I was in the fifth grade, maybe the fourth grade, and I remember seeing a poster for the Walk for Hunger in Massachusetts. Growing up in a suburb in Massachusetts and traveling to India every year to visit my family, I thought I knew what hunger looked like. And so seeing this poster in rural Massachusetts kind of confused me. You know, hunger in America is really invisible. And so I remember coming home and asking my father, like, why are they doing a walk for hunger? Like, I don't see hunger here. And my dad kind of walked me through, well this is what, what, what the situation is. And I was like, well, we have to walk. And I went around to all my neighbors and raised money. This was like my first big kind of act of service, right? Like something that I didn't see myself, but that someone brought to my attention. And I was like, well, we can change this. This is a silly problem. And I thought to myself, like the richest country in the world shouldn't have this problem. 

And so I remember that really kind of being my first act of good. And for what doing good means is when you see something that can be fixed, ton't shy away from trying to fix it, even if you fail. Like just try trying is good. Um, and that's something that I always try to bring to the table is, I may not know how to do this yet, but lemme try. 

Scott M. Curran: How did the international exposure at a young age change or enhance your awareness of both need and opportunity? 

Megha Desai: I think that the international exposure is 100% why I am the way I am.

Scott M. Curran: Say more. 

Megha Desai: Being able to co go not just to urban areas in India, but in rural communities in India, um, has completely transformed what I think of systems of people of diversity, the way that we approach anything, right? Like India's so big, there are so many people there, and they have so many different languages and religions and I guess it's, I almost felt like when I would come back into my very Catholic, very white suburban town, that it, it would take me a minute to kind of adjust, be like, “Wow, we're this very kind a homogeneous place.” 

But I think that the international travel, for me, I actually feel like it should be mandatory for everyone.I think everyone should, if they can. You know, get on a plane and see someplace completely different from you because it's hard to have like hate in your heart. It's hard to understand injustice when you see so many different layers of lives, of people, of shapes. I also think that the international exposure for me was fundamental to my being able to communicate. I have been listening to stories from so many different perspectives that. I think it makes me better at my work, better at communicating with people and bringing people to the table. Um, 'cause I feel like if I only had one perspective, I'm not sure I would be good at anything, you know? 

Scott M. Curran: So take us there. Now let's fast forward from that early experience to now for listeners who don't know about your specific career journey and how you've landed where you are. Take us through the flyover oof where young Megha went. Where you entered the workforce. And how you wound up at the Desai Foundation doing what you're doing now. And then we're gonna unpack that a little bit. 

Megha Desai: Okay. I remember in high school, thinking to myself that I wanted one of two jobs. I either wanted to be the press secretary of the United States of America, or I wanted to be the chief marketing officer for the New England Patriots. And those are what, those were the jobs that I was gunning for.

Scott M. Curran: That's fantastic. 

Megha Desai: And so I volunteered on a lot of political campaigns. I worked at a lot of. Communications, uh, companies. My first internships were in advertising pr and I ended up working in advertising for about 13 years. I worked at BBH, Wieden+Kennedy. Enjoyed it. I was good at it. But every time I got promoted and put on like the big brand that everyone was coveting, I remember being like, “Is this…is this kind of, it is, is this what I'm gonna spend 90 hours of my week doing?” And it just, there was something always missing for me. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's not for everyone. But selling deodorant for me wasn't my calling. Um, and so that is when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, I then started my own branding company 'cause I thought to myself, well, let me choose my own clients and maybe then I can do the storytelling and that makes a difference. 

So I was working with startup brands nonprofits, and some large corporations, helping them tell stories. And connect them with organizations that were doing good. So an example of this is me and my friend Ryna did a project together for a nonprofit called one.org, um, which of course is elevating Africa and--

Scott M. Curran: The one.org.

Megha Desai: The one.org. 

Scott M. Curran: The One which for those who may not be familiar with it, was started by Bono. In partnership with Apple, and others, to sell one branded products raising money for needs abroad. 

Megha Desai: They have like AIDS work, they have uplifting work, they have a lot of different work. And so one of the things they said to us was, you know, we're trying to reframe and reshape the way that people perceive Africa and we want them to look at it as a place of creativity and opportunity and what are some ideas on how we can do that.

So I was like, well, music for me, given the root of the One brand is Bono. How do you look at the music landscape? So then there was a teeny, tiny little Swedish nonprofit called Spotify. Huh. And my friend, who I worked with in advertising happened to be the creative director of Spotify at the time. And so we launched the first ever branded playlist on Spotify for one.org that celebrated African musicians coming out out of the continent. So this was a way that we were kind of bringing together, you know, and by the way, that that whole, the whole project cost 0 dollars. And so we were able to create a lot of impact with not a lot of money. At the same time that I was running my marketing agency, my family had been running a family foundation for about 10 years, and the family foundation operated very much like a family foundation where we were writing checks to other organizations. 

But my father's an entrepreneur, now I'm an entrepreneur. And you know, we're a little annoying. So you start kind of tinkering at the programming and say to yourself, “Okay, how can I make this better? How can I do this better?” So we deconstructed the programs that we were working on and reconstruct invested all of our money making the best MVP possible—the most, most viable product possible. And once we were like, “Oh, okay, we have 10 products that we can scale that are impactful. Let's open up our cap table and invite people to help us scale.” And so at that time we were pivoting from a family foundation to a public programmatic organization. 

Scott M. Curran: Love it. 

Megha Desai: That is kind of when I entered the, the nonprofit world. And um, frankly, I was not everyone's first choice. Um, and I even said to myself like, we should probably find someone with actual nonprofit experience. But at the time, this was, you know, 14 years ago when the, the nonprofit space wasn't as sexy as it is now. And so everyone that was coming to us were wonderfully qualified people, but it was like 20 years at UNICEF, 15 years at Care. And so we were thinking to ourselves, “Hmm, we want someone with that entrepreneurial spirit that wants to kind of build the plane and fly at the same time.That wants to take risks that isn't afraid to fail because these are pilots. So how do we make sure that we are willing to iterate?” Couldn't find the right person.So I said, “Okay, I will do this for a year. Give us some runway.” And when I took over, we were in 250 villages, operating 15 programs in one state. 

Scott M. Curran: One state in India. 

Megha Desai: In India, we are now in eight states operating in 3,750 villages. 

Scott M. Curran: Let's talk about the impact. Mm-hmm. So I love the growth story. I love the pivoting, the scale.I love the one year. I also started my decade long career at the Clinton Foundation. Started first as an internship and then a one year fellowship. I left 10 years later, so I get the whole one to 10 thing and, and I love it. I love that you're still on it. Talk about the impact of the foundation and what you do. Because I want to start getting comfortable being uncomfortable.  About one of the topics in particular. 

I grew up the son of an OBGYN. Ah, so my dad delivered me, yes. And this was in the days before cell phones. And so all the on-call calls came to the house. So it didn't matter that I would pick up the phone as a 10, 12, 13-year-old and say, “Curran residence.” People still thought they were talking to the office or they didn't pay attention or listen to. They thought somehow that I was my dad. And so I would be told all the things that were happening, whether it was someone in labor or dealing with an issue, so. I got comfortable. with these realities of life that we. You have a really amazing way. I've seen you on stages speaking about this, where you explain certain things to people to make this common sense far more common and sensible and understandable in a way that really, really matters. So tell us about all the work of the Desai Foundation, but then talk to us about menstrual equity and why we all just gotta get comfy with it.

Megha Desai: So we work across three different verticals. Health, livelihood, menstrual equity, health, we define as access screening and information. Livelihood is skilling, um, entrepreneurship, banking, and savings, and menstrual equity is 360, and I'll get into that. 

Scott M. Curran: Any one of those things alone can keep a single nonprofit going for a very long time.To tackle all three is particularly challenging, so feel free to talk about how you do that well as you go. 

Megha Desai: So the reason we work in all three verticals is because when you look in rural India, if you solve one issue, they all kind of build on top of one another. You, when you look at a village, you can say, “okay, if I elevate the health of these folks, then they can work.Then they're gonna need a skill.” So how do you, you know, kind of just improving one vertical might not have the same rich dignity-cultivating impact. And so at the end of the day, our mission is always to cultivate dignity for the women we serve. And so every village has a different need. So some villages, they actually have a hospital not too far away, so we don't do a ton of health work in that region where we do 'em a lot more livelihood work, and vice versa. So what we've been able to look at is in every village, how do we bring women together? How do we ensure that they have baseline health? How do we ensure that they have the information they need to live a healthy, dignified life?

And then if they have the opportunity to work or the desire to work, they have a skill that they know how to bring home. Because these women aren't always allowed to go to a factory or to a full-time, nine-to-five job. So teach them a skill that they can do at. And if they want, and they can, they can go to a, you know, a center and, and have that job, whether it's sewing, whether it's beautician skills, whether it's computer classes, et cetera.

Scott M. Curran: So for a 14-year-old in high school who may not understand why women and girls education, empowerment, and employment matters internationally, given the quick 101 level on that. 

Megha Desai: Sure. Only a third of women in India work when you are 1.4 billion people. When you are a democracy and you are trying to move this entire population forward, you, you can't clap with one hand, right? You cannot leave two thirds of the workforce on the table. It's a GDP issue. It is a health issue. I think that we all saw that during the pandemic, you know, when India was at the peak of its crisis, like how it affected the world. The largest population in the world. It doesn't, even if you think you're sitting alone, you know, in Massachusetts you are, we are all very connected.

And so if the largest democracy and the largest population fails in its health, in its ability to earn it, there will be an impact globally. And so how do you connect those dots? And so for us, that solution is health, livelihood, and menstrual equity. 

Scott M. Curran: Love it. 

Megha Desai: So the thing that goes horizontal across health and livelihood is climate resilience. And so we have a lot of climate resilient programs. Because the reason I'm having to re-skill these women is because they can't till their land. Or the reason I'm having to do more anemia work, for example, is because the anemia rate in India has skyrocketed because the temperature has already risen. And so that's kind of the bulk othose big verticals. 

Menstrual equity. First and foremost, none of us would exist if women did not bleed. And so the fact that it is a taboo topic has befuddled me endlessly. 

Scott M. Curran: One of my favorite things I've ever heard anybody say from a stage, but you, is we are all the result of a missed period.

Megha Desai: We are all the result of a missed. 

Scott M. Curran: Every single one of us.

Megha Desai: Every single one of us.

Scott M. Curran:  Get comfy. It's like the easiest thing, like, I'm so glad that happened. 

Megha Desai: Yeah, and my favorite part about this issue is that people somehow have tied it up with a lot of other issues. So for us, menstrual equity is important because periods are overregulated. They are over-stigmatized, and the stigmas are actually the most dangerous.

I'll tell you a little bit about what I see in these villages. In these villages, there are all these old wives tales, which actually were started because of care. So think back to a a time where women are frabbing their buckets and going down to the river to fill up their water. RTo be brought back to the village.

Scott M. Curran: Which is actually still super common in much of the world and for still super common. For my 14 and 16-year-old at home—that's a reality. For a shockingly large percentage of the planet. 

Megha Desai: What used to happen back in the day was a woman would say, “Hey girl, you're on your period. I got you. Gimme your bucket.” Patriarchy made it so that that care, it has been corrupted. And right now it's oppression.

You are too dirty to get the water. My entire life, I grew up in a very, very modern, progressive Hindu family till the day my grandmother passed away. She and I fought about the fact that I had the audacity to pray when I was bleeding. And I always felt that my exam at school is not gonna change because I'm bleeding. So if I'm gonna pray to like get a good grade, you know, in the morning I still have to pray because I have a test. But man, my grandmother would get mad at me and I just thought to myself, “This is when I need God the most. Is God really abandoning me for these five days?” And her rationale was that you're not at your purest, therefore you should not present yourself to God.

And I just don't buy that. And, you know, the Hindu gods that I grew up with are like, for the most part, genderless. They are, they come in so many different forms. And I thought to myself, this just doesn't add up. And I continued to pray on my period. So here I am in America, in this very progressive, modern family still being affected by these stigmas. Now transport that into a small rural village in India where she can't sit with her family when she's bleeding. She's maybe can't even enter the home. She certainly can't go to school. She certainly can't, you know participate in any of the family cooking or anything. What that does is it prevents you from staying in school.

One third of girls in India drop outta school once they hit menarche. Menarche is when you start your period two holds people back from the workforce and it's really detrimental to your health if you're not learning about your period. You know, I think that people even here that are more educated, that have access to medical care don't actually realize how important understanding your menstrual cycle is, not just from a pregnancy perspective, but that too. But like, the color of your period can tell you if you are iron deficient. The consistency of your period can tell you if you are dehydrated. If you are ill, like it tells you so much information. And if you are trying to get pregnant, if you are trying to not get pregnant, if you are trying to stay healthy, like I am currently anemic. I know this because the last time I got my period, it was not the right color. And so I went to the doctor and I said, can you testify I'm anemic? Sure. In fact, I'm anemic right now. So like there are so many pieces of information and what has happened with menstrual equity, and the reason we use the phrase menstrual equity, because it's not just about health. It's not just about access to products and not just about overregulation, which we'll get into. It's about being comfortable with something that is so natural that 51% of the population has. And so for us, it's not only about health, it's about GDP, it's about education. It, it, it is about community and it is about dignity.

And so for us, that is why we focus on menstrual equity because it affects every single one of the verticals that we work in. 

Scott M. Curran: I love it. I love. everything about the commitment to raising awareness. 'cause raising awareness gets such a bad rap is being, and when it's on its own, it can be not, not the highest and best use of, of any individual organization's efforts, but it is so critical. I have a 14-year-old daughter. I have, you know, we, she is anemic. We have to talk about these things. So, but it's hard for most people and I think that. Understanding the context of it for planet Earth, that we're all spinning through this fragile little blue marble in, in a very vast universe. And to realize that we're only here for a little while, we are all a product of a missed period. We all, in most cases—well, God willing, in most cases we have a relationship with a mother or a mother figure. We are either married to somebody who, who may be a mother or, um, have shared that experience or we may have our own daughters.

And so it's critically important and really hard, I think, for a lot of people given the, the social stigma, not just in India or in international contexts, but in the US as well. 

Megha Desai: And let's get into that. Right now in the United States, menstruation is more regulated than in any other place in the world.

Scott M. Curran: Say more. 

Megha Desai: So what has happened is that the anti-abortion folks, the anti-trans folks and then the anti-sex education and school folks have been using menstruation as this political football in order to get to their means to the end. Right. And what does that look like? So in the state of Florida, no one under the age of 12 and the average age of menarche in the United States is 12—so average—is allowed to talk about menstruation in a school or public government building. Now how they're regulating this, no idea, but it is currently the law. The “don't say period bill” is the law in the state of Florida. This is because of the anti-sex education folks that basically said, “oh, okay, we know how to make it so that we can't, we don't teach sex education until 14 is, let's make it so that it's actually illegal to talk about menstruation.” The anti-abortion folks have overregulated periods to a degree where, um, right now in nine states, any information you put into an app or into your phone regarding your menstruation is—HIPAA doesn't apply, and you, it is subpoen-able. There are cCoaches out there that are demanding their, their players provide their menstrual cycles so that they can determine if they're healthy. These are not doctors. Um, and of course it's just about regulating periods to see who's missed a period. 

And then an example of the anti-trans folks. This is one of my favorite stories, but like in the state of Idaho. There are no period, there are no period products available in boys or girls' bathrooms. So there was this huge uproar about pads and tampons being in a boys' bathroom. What's hilarious is that the reason they were in the boys' bathroom is because at night that school locker becomes the opposing team's bathroom. So it's kind of genderless, right? And so they were like, “Oh, we might as well put pads in here 'cause for the away team.” But someone got really upset. And so now there are just no pads or or tampons in any bathroom. Um, and so this is an example, you know, plus the tampon taxes plus like, I could go on and on and on. And there are just so many laws and what I wanna see, what menstrual equity means. And by the way, that term was coined by Jennifer Weiss Wolf—who is the smartest person in this topic that I know. 

The word equity. So it was menstrual health, right? Because it was all focused on the health of the girl and the woman. And then we were like, oh wait, there are people that can't afford period products, so that's menstrual poverty. Then there are all these stigmas and things where people are, don't have information. So that's awareness, and we realize that the issue is just much bigger. And then you have all these laws. So the idea of equity is to deregulate menstruation. To ensure that our products are not taxed or as nearly as expensive as they need to be. Ensuring that people have equal access to information, to products, and for us to not be so ashamed of it. 

Every time we see periods represented on film or tv, it's the same story. It's a girl in high school or middle school that is wearing white pants that gets stuck in the bathroom. That's such an old tale, like, can't we be better storytellers? 

Scott M. Curran: So I'm skipping a little further ahead, faster than I expected to, but I want to go directly to your background in advertising communications and the importance of storytelling, which is critical across any and all good work. Social impact work in philanthropy, in the private sector, et cetera. My theory of Better Good is that I think all humans are wired for good. People want to do good and rarely will ever say they're not trying to. So assuming just for a second That people who are overregulating menstruation believe it's for good. That there, it, it's serving some end that they believe, let's assume sincerely is good. How do we plainly help them see that it is better good if they consider the following. How do we explain how this is better for the moms they came from and who presumably they love the wives they're married to, if that's the case for them? Which is very often the case for a lot of the law legislators who, who, who, who fall on the side of wanting to regulate on this topic. How do we guide them towards a better view that. There's a different, and we would argue better way?

Megha Desai: I really wish people with body part that don't have certain body parts are wouldn't regulate the body parts that they would have.

Scott M. Curran: Mind your business. 

Megha Desai: Mind your business. So my request of lawmakers would be like, have you ever spoken to a woman?  

Scott M. Curran: Good spot to start. 

Megha Desai: If you haven't spoken to a woman, if you have spoken to a woman, you would know. Oh yeah. Um, like let's, let's make it the simplistic, the most simplistic one, right. We know that when these tax laws, like sales tax laws were being written, the reason why menstrual products are included in that is because you know our, I don't even have to look it up. I know a hundred percent there was not a single woman at that table. It's also why in most prisons periods are not available, like pads are not available for free.

That's had to be legislated to reverse that, and there are still many prisons in the United States. 

Scott M. Curran: Prisons where wages are relatively low, if not non-existent for Yeah. Inmates. Interesting. 

Megha Desai: And so like, I, I really just wish they would talk to women and I wish they would understand that this is a bodily function that we cannot control. Especially in now these conversations around IUDs and birth control, pills being considered abortion. Like, okay, let's think about what menstruation is. Talk to a woman, don't regulate something. For your own means. And what I would actually say to the reverse folks, so like the pro-choice folks and the trans activists and the pro sex education in school, or just education in general, is talk to one another because I think what's happening is that they're not seeing it happen, and that's why it's amassed the way it has. I don't, I don't think it was intentional for menstruation to be like one of the most regulated bodily functions in America. I think it, it happened bit by bit by bit by bit. I would just kind of say like, “If you, if, if you, if you would like to see all of those laws in one place, gimme a buzz.” I have them and they, it, it will shock you. How many laws there are and how small they are, and it's seemingly innocuous, but when taken at aggregate, it's kind of terrifying. 

Scott M. Curran: Let's assume that there is a elected official mm-hmm. At the national level who does not see things the way you see things. What's the simplest way to get them to understand that this issue matters and they should be on the side of an affected woman? 

Megha Desai: Well, I mean, it's all about control, right? The same people that are making regulations around abortion or, you know, credit cards needing a man's signature or one vote per household. These things are, it's all about control. They still love their wife, but they don't want her to have a voice. So how do you, 

Scott M. Curran: Or a period. 

Megha Desai: Or a period, so how do you create. A lens for men to understand, right? Like I've, I'm still, this is, this might be going one step too far, but I'm convinced that if men menstruated, there would be, the work week would look different when we are on our periods.

No one knows when a woman is on our period, right? We're interacting with women all day that are doing the same work, but they are in physical, crippling pain. They are constantly thinking and and checking and making sure that everything's okay from a stain perspective. And there's also just like shame, like shame is passed down from generations.

And so I remember thinking to myself when I was working in advertising, like I don't need the day off, but if I was just allowed to come in two hours later on those three days for me, I'd be so much more productive. It's funny how big this issue is and it's kind of always pushed in the corner of this like little women's health thing, but it's not it, it is such a big issue.

Scott M. Curran: So I believe strongly that vision drives mission. So what's the vision of menstrual equity at scale, both in the international context and here in the United States? Take, feel free to take both. 

Megha Desai: For the United States. I just want deregulation. I I do think that the mar

Scott M. Curran: which is so interesting, how well that line works with those who may be responsible for the regulation. 

Megha Desai: Yeah, yeah. I, I just want deregulation. I just don't understand why the word menstruation is in any sort of legislation at all, or the period products or et cetera. So that's one. 

Internationally, when we look at the issue of menstruation, there are, you know, this is girls' education, and by the way, we educate boys on menstruation too. So let's A, bring men to the table. B, it's about education. And C, it's about GDP, right? I always think that the way to get men on board is to talk business. Yeah. And the way that I talk businesses, I'm sorry—on't you want two thirds of the workforce to come? Do you know why so many women in India don't participate in the workforce is because their pace of work doesn't have a toilet for them to change their pad, or they don't have access to pads, or they don't have, they can't afford the pads? A pad is freedom. It allows you to exit your house and go about your daily life. 

And so I always think about it as this is a GDP issue, this is a health issue, and this is a dignity issue.

Scott M. Curran: What progress have you seen in people understanding it better? In India in particular? 

Megha Desai: So in India, I think the conversation has started, like, I think that people are a little bit more comfortable with the topic. That's thanks to, there was a big Bollywood film, uh, that came out that, uh, addressed the issue. I think that there has been, that there has been steps, but I mentioned this earlier, like trauma is passed down through women. So sometimes we'll go into a village and we'll say, “Okay, we wanna bring these programs to the community, to the girls” And the women are the ones that are resistant because they're the ones carrying the shame. And then we go to the, the the male elders of the community and we say, “Hey, we wanna do this, this, this program.” And they're like, “Oh, yes, this makes sense.” And then the women get on board. Now, I'm not saying that's in every village. But I'm saying in some villages we've been to, that's kind of how we've gotten me in.

And so I've always thought to myself, is, Bring men to the table. Educate, educate, educate. And so we're, what I'm seeing in India is the conversation has started. Products need to be more readily available. Market-based solutions need to be applied. We need running water in every village. Andhat, that's really what I wanna see happen.

The market has to participate. It cannot just be philanthropy. It cannot just be government. It has to be the market, figuring out why it's important. We actually had this funny thing happen where the local police station in Godhra asked us to put menstrual, uh, pad products in all of the police stations across the state. 

And, uh, the reason for this was because sometimes they arrest women and they, the police stations didn't have any products to, to manage that. Not a thought I had. Yeah. Right. And so that's the market coming to us and saying, okay. And they, and they paid us to do that, right? We, they paid us to, to build those machines, install them, and, and put them in there.

I think that for me, the vision is education, access to information, deregulation, market based solutions, and bring men to the table. 

Scott M. Curran: How do you measure success beyond the obvious? Machines and stations, et cetera. The, the qualitative aspects of life, how are you approaching that? And then how do you turn that into a story that helps you?

Continue to destigmatize, raise awareness, engage partners. 'cause you have been remarkably successful for a relatively small nonprofit engaging global leaders and partners in this. And in a world where awareness raising is a real deliverable and a real achievement, you're doing it in a way and on a topic that's very, very hard. So say a little bit about that. Like what, what does it look like? And then how have you already seen your success and share what some of the successes look like. For a small foundation to have attracted some of the attention that you have and for you to have commanded some of the stages you've been on, it's a true success story that any nonprofit can learn from, if you can do that. It's a story of hope for so many nonprofits. 

Megha Desai: Thank you for saying that. I, I agree. I think that we, we are a really small organization, um, and the reason I think we've had success is for kind of two reasons.

One is my team on the ground and the programming is exceptional. And the reason we've been able to expand so quickly is because of our ground game, right? Our ground game is really good, and because of my background in marketing and advertising, I think one of the things that I've been able to do is be a little bit of a straight—and I also think my naivete and the of, in the space, right? I kinda was this like renegade advertising girl that came into the nonprofit space. And so I almost, my naivete almost was like, I didn't know what I wasn't supposed to do. And so I was able to just say, “let's talk about periods” to like government officials, and they'd be like, “Oh dear.” And but then they were like, “Oh, actually this makes sense.” And, and I think that I was able to be a little bit more of a straight shooter than maybe someone would feel like they could enter into. 

My number one goal. I think that all of these things happen if people are just comfortable talking about it. If you are comfortable talking about it, right? I wanna be able to say, snap, I gotta run to the bathroom. I gotta change my pad. I'll be right back, be able to talk about it. I think that these things will move much quicker and so I want women and leaders to feel like this is not something holding them back, It's part of their lives andt hey don't ever have to constantly like think, do I have a pad? Do I have this? It's like just, it's everywhere. It's all, all the fakes we hear about. 

Scott M. Curran: I mean, if you zoom way out into philanthropy, people talk about it all the time. How nonprofits need to act more like businesses, business need to act more like nonprofits. There's lots of fun conversation there, but bringing in entrepreneurial mindset. Yep. Taking a big swing at a tough issue that other people might see as stigma or making ask. But they've worked for you. 

Megha Desai: Yeah, they've worked for us. And it's because we, like you said about the business part, right. Our menstrual program where we, we retail, make retail quality pads. They're made by women for women, distributed by women. It's a market-based solution because people pay for our pads. We have, we create jobs at three different layers. We have distribution agents, we have sales agents, and then we have the women that work at the manufacturing and I think that what we forget about when it comes to philanthropy is I, I almost don't know how to, I wouldn't have known how to do it another way because I don't have the philanthropy background.

And so I was like, “Okay, well obviously we would, we should be making our own and we should be doing this and making it a market-based solution.” And so. I think it's a, making the big, big asks, taking the swings, thinking like a business. And then if I can give myself a little credit, I, you know, thanks to debate team in high school, I'm a pretty eloquent communicator and so I have been able to speak about these issues and kind of bring—I'm also not super like polished as a human, so I'm a little bit more approachable and I think I can be, a good facilitator in some of these conversations. And so people aren't as intimidated by me. 

Scott M. Curran: I like not being intimidated by you, and I feel like authenticity goes a very long way. You're dropping some serious wisdom for young people, for people in philanthropy who are running nonprofits that are tackling tough issues. Everything from get comfortable with the uncomfortable until it's no longer uncomfortable. That's as applicable to lawmakers as it is. people struggling through how to pitch or yeah, lean in to 14-year-old boys who have, you know, 12-year-old sisters. Be cool. Get comfortable being uncomfortable until it's no longer uncomfortable. Because this really matters. 

Megha Desai: And that applies not just to the topic, it applies to your role a 

Scott M. Curran: Hundred percent right. 

Megha Desai: In in what you're doing. 

Scott M. Curran: If you had to choose between getting a billion dollars mm-hmm. Of funding or having all the perfect partners you needed to scale your work, which one would you choose?

Megha Desai: Oh, the partners, for sure. That's easy. Let me show you what partnership looks like for us. Uh, during the pandemic, I had a donor call and asked us, “What do you need? Right? And my answer was quite flippant. I basically said, “I need an army.” I was really tired that day, and he goes, “Well figure out what that looks like and come back to me.”

Three days later, my team and I had put together a one single page proposal that laid out our Heroes for Humanity program. We're gonna go out into these villages. We're gonna identify folks that we think are capable and smart, and ready, willing, and able. We're gonna hire them, train them, and deploy them in three months. Those heroes were so essential during that peak of COVID. And every three months, they're retrained. And so our heroes four years later, are distributing sanitary napkins. They are hosting health camps. They're teaching banking and savings information. They're recruiting folks to come take our vocational programs.

They're essential to our growth. One check for one person that had trust and allowed us to stumble and fall as we were building this program. Partnership for us, I want, I want for anyone that wants it to take our model and run with it. I want governments to listen to the people on the ground, not the people sitting at the table because they actually don't understand the issue. I want, and this is my biggest thing when it comes to India—people are really not understanding the difference between urban and rural. And it's why I am so adamant about only working in rural India and the solutions that work in rural India very rarely work in urban India and vice versa. And so let's approach these issues differently. And so I want partners that work in rural India, um, whether it's health, whether it's funding, I would love it if, say, Pfizer or a another pharmaceutical company, helped us with all the medicine access we need in these communities. I would love it if Proctor and Gamble, the largest manufacturer of sanitary napkins, fought against the tampon tax. I would love it if Proctor and Gamble understood that they need dynamic pricing for their products. So in certain communities it needs to be lower than other. That's our, our products are price-dynamic. So there are different prices in each market. Um, and yeah, take, take our model, participate in the solution, and help us scale whether that means geographically in, depth wise or breath-wise.

Um, and so for us, ideally, Scott, I would like to put myself out of business. That's what I wanna see is—whether you're a government, whether you are a market-based solution, whether you're a philanthropist, work towards an exit, and there are some areas where that's not possible. So like health I understand is like there's no off-road to making sure that people live healthy and dignified lives, but there is for something like menstrual equity.

And so I hope we're not here in 10 years having this conversation. 

Scott M. Curran: I hope so too, and I know that if we are, it's gonna be because of the work you do. I love it.

Megha you are a star in the world in which I work in the nonprofit space. But you are a star in this world in a, in a way that the earth needs right now. All of humanity does. You bring people along in an engaging and inspiring way. You have engaged and inspired me. I lost my dad a couple years ago, but I feel like, you know, the, the son of the OBGYN found another place to feel comfortable with the uncomfortable when I saw you on the spotlight stage at CGI and I was like, “She is taking one of the most commonly shared things on planet Earth because every single one of us is the result of a missed period. And the thing she's talking about is the thing I used to find awkward and then like really compelling as a student, or not as a student, as a young kid. Where I'm like, I have to help these people in their moment of need.” Get from me to somebody who knows how to help. And in a world where we need more people who can help. 

Megha Desai: Yeah. And to not make your daughter feel awkward about it. 

Scott M. Curran: Yes. And her daughter and yeah, my son's nieces in the future. 

Megha Desai: And your sons. 

Scott M. Curran: God, yes. It's all so combined and you are so incredibly spectacular at that.

Megha Desai: Thank you. 

Scott M. Curran: And I don't know that I've seen anybody else doing what you do anywhere close to the way you're doing it. 

Megha Desai: No. There are so many amazing humans in the menstrual equity space that I couldn't do my work without. Um, again, asked a lot of people for help. And so I think there are a lot of people, I think everyone receives messaging differently. And so I, there's room for all of us because some people want information that's really data-driven, that's really factual, that's whatever, talk to the team at The Case for Her. You know, some people like things that are legal and policy oranges. Talk to Jennifer Weiss Wolf. Then there's also like, kind of more pop culturally. Talk to Claire Coder from, from Aunt Flo. There are so many amazing people doing great work in menstrual equity and there's room for all of us. And we need all of us because you're, you connect to the way I speak. Someone else is gonna connect to the way that someone else speaks. 

And so that's why I'm always encouraging folks, you wanna start that NG for menstrual equity? Go right ahead. Um, and I, you know, I never, ever get protective of our work or the lane that we're in, um, because they might come up with a solution and do better than we we do, right? And at the end of the day, we have to get to the end result. 

Scott M. Curran: A wonderful way to end on the concept of better good. Thank you for being with me today and for being an example of Better Good in this world. 

Megha Desai: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Scott. That was fun. 

Scott M. Curran: Thank you for tuning in to the Better Good podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please remember to rate, review, subscribe, and. You can watch the show on YouTube or Spotify, and for those who prefer to listen, we're on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts.

If you wanna learn more about how you can do more good, better in your life and work, you can also find me on Instagram threads, LinkedIn, or subscribe to my substack. You can find links to all of these at www.scottmcurran.com. 

Better Good is a beyond creative production. My executive producers are Kieron Banerjee and Aaron Shulman. Production is by Echo Studios in partnership with Palm Tree Island. 

Remember, the world's biggest problems won't wait, and neither should you.