Publications by authors named "Karan Babbar"

Contraception is a crucial tool that empowers women to control their bodily autonomy. Concurrently, domestic violence remains a pressing public health issue, depleting women's autonomy. We establish a causal link between a woman's contraceptive use decision and the occurrence of intimate partner violence.

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Article Synopsis
  • The rise of premature menopause among Indian women, especially aged 30-39, is linked to factors such as lower education levels, poor wealth status, and rural living conditions.
  • The study found that nearly 5% of rural women and 3% of urban women experience premature menopause, with surgical menopause significantly impacting rates, particularly among those with lower education—where rates are seven times higher than for those highly educated.
  • The findings suggest a need for increased awareness and alternative treatment options for women, highlighting the importance of addressing the complexities behind premature menopause to better support affected individuals.
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Literature on the challenges faced by those who menstruate to maintain menstrual health and hygiene during a crisis like COVID-19 is still developing. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey to understand the experiences of those who menstruate during India's COVID-19 national lockdown in 2020. We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a sub-sample of the 683 Indians who menstruate aged 18 to 49 years.

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Poor access to toilets has significant impacts on hygiene, health, safety, and well-being. Women in resource-poor areas may not use public toilets because of concerns about personal safety and the disapproval of others. This study examines social beliefs about women's use of public toilets in India, using data from 5,052 households in rural, semi-urban, and urban slum areas of Bihar and Tamil Nadu in 2018.

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For over a decade, improving menstrual hygiene among poor girls and women in low-and-middle-income-countries has been a prominent global goal. Towards this, governments in the Global South have worked to promote the uptake of disposable sanitary pads. Despite this, we continue to see a high prevalence of period poverty mainly because disposable pads require monthly purchasing that may be burdensome for many women.

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This paper empirically explores the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying lockdown on adolescent girls' and women's access to sanitary pads in India. We have used the National Health Mission's Health Management Information System (NHM-HMIS) data for the study, which provides data on pads' distribution on a district level. The empirical strategy used in the study exploits the variation of districts into red, orange, and green zones as announced by the Indian Government.

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There is a growing body of literature focusing on the direct relationship between women's relative resources (WRR) and intimate partner violence (IPV). However, the underlying mechanism remains largely unexplored. Grounded in the popular sociological theories, Relative Resource Theory (RRT) and Gendered Resource Theory (GRT), this study addresses the research gap by proposing a moderated-mediation model to i) understand the process through which WRR influences the relational empowerment and violence victimization, and, ii) explain the role of husband's patriarchal attitude in the proposed linkages.

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