COVID-19 and Period Products Usage among Menstruating Women in Urban and Rural India

18/11/2021

COVID-19 and Period Products Usage among Menstruating Women in Urban and Rural India

Karan Babbar and Pritha Dev

Working Papers

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This paper estimates the impact of the lockdown across various zones on the period product consumption for menstruating women in India. We have used the national-level panel data from the CMIE's Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) database across 510 districts of India, along with the lockdown zones data. Our study uses a robust strategy to exploit the temporal and spatial variation of the lockdown by using difference-in-difference estimates on period products expenditure. Our results show reduction of 27% in period products consumption in red zone districts compared to the green zone districts. There is a strong need to create robust infrastructure to ensure delivery of period products, especially during emergencies.

IIMA