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Article History

Received: 19 August 2025

Accepted: 19 December 2025

First Online: 29 December 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors of the article did not obtain ethical approval from the Institutional Human Ethics Committee of Vidyasagar University to conduct this research. However, the research was conducted in view of the following considerations: (1) Ethical standard: This research was conducted involving human participants adhering to the Helsinki Declaration, 2024. The data for the research has been collected only through interviewing the study participants. The data collection methods neither involved bodily measurements nor the collection of samples for clinical laboratory tests. No medical risk for the participants was thus entailed. The research was conducted also following the ethical considerations as stipulated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) National Ethical Guidelines (2017) for Biomedical and Health research involving humans as study participants. The research conducted was also in accordance with the ethical expectations for social science research promoted by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). (2) Informed Consent: All participants were informed about the purpose and nature of the study and informed consent was obtained from them prior to their participation, in the presence of a witness. Furthermore, the informed consent was taken either from the parents or from the legal guardians of the participants, who were non-literate and also below the age of 19 at the time of conducting the study. (3) Confidentiality: Individual identity of the participants have been kept strictly confidential. Personal identifiers were removed during data handling and analysis. Data have been stored securely and can be accessed only by the authors of this article. (4) Voluntary Participation: Participation was completely voluntary and all participants were made aware that they could withdraw from the study at any point of time, without any negative consequences upon them.

: The study participants gave their verbal consents to the authors that they have no objection if the findings of the study are published.

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Participants having substandard menstrual hygiene practices were provided with brief advice and educational guidance during the interviews.