On September 14, 22-year-old Rizwana rushed to her friend's house, located a few doors down the dirt lane at Panzith Wanpora, a quaint village in Qazigund, some 60 kms south of Srinagar. As soon as her friend answered the door, Rizwana, almost winded out, asked her for sanitary pads.

"She took a pack out of her steel cabinet, wrapped it in an old newspaper and handed it over to me," said Rizwana. Due to the lockdown in Kashmir, she was unable to buy the pads.

The Valley has been virtually shut since August 5 when the Government of India did away with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and split the state into two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.