Raho Safe challenges traditional viewpoints around menstruation by encouraging people to share their #EkPERIODkikahani. The brand’s initiative centres around normalizing period talk, pad buying by both genders.
Raho Safe’s social media handle is abuzz with #HaqSeLaal and red as a mark of both power and purity. The contest Ek PERIOD kikahani is an offshoot of its recent campaign that aims to break the black poly bag barrier while buying pads, and talk about how men can buy them too. Raho Safe is driving the change from period as a taboo topic to something that everyone is comfortable speaking about.
Speaking about this, VikasBagaria, Founder, Raho Safe, said, “We think it is time to normalize men buying pads and periods as such. It is also time that we educate men about menstruation and all its aspects. We want to send across the message that sanitary pads are not something to be hidden in newspapers or black polythene but an essential item – as important as anything else on your monthly grocery list. Red is powerful and pure and it is okay to bleed red. It’s okay if men know that you bleed.”
For the contest, people can send in their pad buying/period stories in the form of a narrative or poetry. Entries must be in the video format and uploaded on the person’s Facebook/Instagram handle. They need to tag @rahosafe and @peesafe and use #MenBuyPads and #ekPERIODkikahnani in the caption as hashtags. The video must be between 2 to 5 minutes in length and the last date for entries is 20th October 2020.
There are nearly 336 million menstruating women in India but only 121 million (roughly 42%) use sanitary napkins. Despite the progress in addressing the taboo against menstruation and access to pads, there is still room for improvement. Raho Safe has been actively campaigning to focus on this aspect through various initiatives that break the stigma surrounding bleeding.