Garima Agarwal (Goëttingen University)

Sanitary napkin distribution and girls’ school participation - Evidence from a public program in India

Abstract

This paper examines whether access to modern menstrual products promotes female school participation. I evaluate a state-level free sanitary napkin distribution program in India using a novel dataset of ten years of daily administrative records from single sex public schools in Delhi. I estimate a difference-in-differences specification for each grade with boys as a control group for girls. I find positive and significant effects on daily attendance for girls in grades 6-9, a time when they are most likely to experience their first menstrual period. There are no such gains for lower or higher grades. An improvement in attendance at pubertal grades is also followed by better academic performance for girls in an important national examination at a later stage. I suggest that the key mechanism of impact may be access to a previously unaffordable or inaccessible input.