Source Name: Procter & Gamble

At the India Economic Summit of World Economic Forum (WEF), Procter & Gamble Pledges to Double the Impact of its ‘Menstrual Hygiene Education Program’ by Reaching 5 Crore Girls by 2022

Oct 04, 2019   14:16 PM 
New Delhi, Delhi, India

  • P&G, till date, has educated 2.5 crore adolescent girls across India on menstrual health and hygiene

  • Madhusudan Gopalan, MD & CEO, P&G - South Asia announced P&Gs commitment during a session on ‘Ending Menstrual Taboos

 

Procter & Gamble (P&G) today pledged to extend the impact of its flagship educational ‘Mother-Daughter Menstrual Health & Hygiene’ program to 5 Crore girls by the end of 2022. Madhusudan Gopalan, MD & CEO, P&G South Asia, announced this commitment during a session on ‘Ending Menstrual Taboos’ at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2019. He also invited government, corporates, NGOs, media and entertainment sector to collaborate on increasing awareness, acceptance and access of hygienic menstruation practices in India.

 

Madhusudan Gopalan, MD & CEO, P&G South Asia


Speaking at the event Madhusudan Gopalan, MD & CEO, P&G South Asia said, “Over the past three decades, we have educated more than 2.5 crore girls in India on menstrual hygiene through our ‘Mother-Daughter Menstrual Health & Hygiene Program’. We pledge to double this impact in the next four years and educate over 5 crore adolescent girls on menstrual hygiene by 2022. This is in line with our efforts to increase awareness and acceptance of healthy menstruation practices, and our vision to achieve 100% menstrual hygiene in India. When we started our journey in India three decades ago, the number of women using sanitary protection was less than 1 crore. Our efforts to create awareness and education have been critical to increase this number to more than 7 crore women today.

 

Madhusudan also emphasized that multi-stakeholder partnerships is imperative to achieve 100% menstrual hygiene, “Less than 20% women in India follow menstrual hygiene practices; even in urban India, the adoption is only around 50%. Awareness, acceptance and access are the biggest barriers to achieving 100% menstrual hygiene. The Government, Corporates, NGOs, media & entertainment sector each have unique strengths, and we must collaborate towards this common goal to achieve 100% menstrual hygiene in the country.”

 

P&G through its brand Whisper began the journey to normalize menstruation in India about 3 decades back; it was the first brand to show a sanitary pad, and the first to mention the word ‘periods’ in advertising. At that time, when the brand wanted to advertise on prime time, TV channels thought it was an inappropriate product to advertise. Whisper then got special permission, to become the first sanitary pad brand to advertise on prime time on Indian Television.

 

The company is renowned for taking menstrual taboos head-on. Back in 2014, Whisper’s widely acclaimed award-winning #TouchThePickle, was one of the first campaigns where any brand or institution in India, took on the taboos surrounding periods at a mass scale. The campaign not only sparked conversations on period taboos but also drove acceptance of this conversation among the older generation which is supposedly the most immersed in these deep-rooted traditions and taboos. Since then, the brand has come up with many campaigns such as #LikeAGirl, #SitImproper, #MeriLifeMereRules, that break societal taboos on periods.

 

About Procter & Gamble 

P&G serves consumers in India with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Vicks ®, Ariel®, Tide®, Whisper®, Olay®, Gillette®, AmbiPur®, Pampers®, Pantene®, Oral-B®, Head & Shoulders® and Old Spice®. P&G operates through 3 entities in India of which 2 are listed on NSE & BSE. The listed P&G entities are: ‘Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited’ and ‘Gillette India Limited’, whereas the unlisted entity (which is a 100% subsidiary of the parent company in the U.S) operates by the name ‘Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd.’.

 

Please visit www.pg-India.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G India and its brands.

 

About Whisper®

Whisper® is India’s leading brand of menstrual hygiene products. With campaigns such as #MeriLifeMereRules, #WhispersBreakSilence, #SitImproper and #TouchThePickle, Whisper has been the source of strength for millions of women and continues to be a crusader to enable girls set free from the silence and shame associated with periods, encouraging them to be truly unstoppable even during their periods. Whisper also runs a nationwide School Program on Menstrual Health & Hygiene Education. The program, started in 1995, reaches out to more than 50 lakh girls every year, through educational sessions conducted in more than 40,000 schools across India.