A group of women volunteers crisscrossed the city handing out packets of sanitary napkins to underprivileged women, who have lost their livelihood because of the lockdown.

The women who received the packets were household help, daily wage labourers and pavement-dwellers in different parts of the city.

The drive was undertaken by the Calcutta chapter of ActionAid India, an organisation that works for women and children, and Calcutta police.

Volunteers accompanied by the police started out from Poddar Court distributing sanitary napkin packets to women who live on pavements. They then went to a cluster of tenements near the Kolkata Improvement Trust building. Packets were also distributed in the Bagbazar area.

The volunteers who distributed the packets wore masks and gloves and carried hand sanitisers.

Rudrani Dasgupta, programme officer of ActionAid Calcutta, said they undertook the drive as menstrual hygiene for these women had taken a backseat because they were facing a severe financial crisis. It was to help the women who now have to make a choice between buying sanitary items and feeding their family, she said.

“These women are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet. Nearly all of them are not getting any wages because they are unable to go to work but have mouths to feed back home. This is the reason we decided to distribute the sanitary pads because this is one of the first items that they curtail to save some money,” Dasgupta said.

Rina Thakur, a resident of Bagbazar who also works with the NGO, said: “Most of my neighbours work as household help and we have very little money left with us. The packets will help all of us a great deal.”