Paper Title
Adoption and Awareness of Branded Female Hygiene Products in Urbanised Hilly Areas

Abstract
Women aged 10 to 50 years old make up a large proportion of India's population. India, on the other hand, has the least developed market for feminine hygiene products. The goal of the study was to understand the awareness, usage spread and adoption of feminine hygiene products such as sanitary napkins among rural women in Himachal Pradesh. The study also focuses on the customer engagement, usage reasons, and challenges to non-use of feminine products by these rural women. Because of their lack of education and understanding, as well as their limited financial resources and use of personal hygiene products, this area was selected. Working status, education, type of home and monthly household income were important influencers in usage or non-usage of feminine hygiene products. Due to the extreme target group's resource strain, feminine hygiene products were seen as a useful but not a necessary product.The data collected through a structured questionnaire was analysed for normality and reliability. The awareness and other parameters under study have been analysed using percentages, Mann Whitney Test and one-way ANOVA. According to the findings, the variable monthly household income, education, family level adoption and peer groups play major effect in shaping opinions of feminine hygiene products as a desirable but non-essential product. Keywords - Feminine Hygiene Products, Puberty, Consumer Adoption Process, Woman's Health and Welfare