What does NFHS-6 reveal about the use of period products in India?

India has spent the last decade treating menstrual health as a policy priority via free-pad schemes, school WASH programmes, and awareness drives under the National Health Mission. The promise behind all of it was simple: where a girl is born should no longer determine whether she can manage her periods safely. The latest round of the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6 2023-24) data helps us understand this promise. The percentage of women aged 15–24 using period products is an indicator of how governments have built those programmes, and by comparing it across States and UTs, we can see whether the promise is being kept, and if not, where and on what the focus must be. The recent findings show that progress is real, but it is slowing and it continues to remain significantly uneven. Findings show that poorer States, i.e., lower at the baseline, are catching up fast, while some of the previously better-performing states are moving backwards, and there is a rural deficit that refuses to close in some of the country’s wealthiest States.