Abstract
Many older women in Karnataka use rags or cloths when menstruating. Women of all ages often restrict activities, both due to a sense of contamination and the difficulty of changing menstrual supplies when away from home.
We are working with a large Project Jnana Vikasa (JVK), under the SKDRDP Organisation. JVK operates self-help groups with 300,000 members in rural Karnataka and runs educational programs for women in these communities. Since 2022, in select areas, JVK’s educational programs have introduced discussions on menstrual cups. JVK has also marketed and sold the cups wholesale. As part of these efforts, JVK collects data on orders (name, phone number, date) and payments. This data collection is part of JVK’s normal operations and is not human subjects data collected for research purposes.
Women in poor nations often have poor menstrual hygiene. We are testing whether an intervention within rural self-help groups can address these challenges. Specifically, we study:
The relationship between the accessibility of free trials and the increase in the uptake of menstrual cups.
The effect of free trials by peers (which we hypothesize will increase uptake) on the cup adoption rate among peers who did not receive a free trial.