Raho Safe's #EkPERIODkikahani breaks stigma around menstruation

The brand’s initiative centres around normalizing period talk and pad buying by both genders.

Raho Safe, the sister concern of India’s leading hygiene and wellness brand, Pee Safe, is calling out men and women to narrate their “Ek PERIOD ki kahani” and own the color red – symbolizing periods. The brand aims to normalize period talk and encourage #MenBuyingPads. The idea is to also be able to speak up about menstruation irrespective of gender and get over the awkwardness of carrying/buying/wearing a pad.

Raho Safe’s social media handle is abuzz with #HaqSeLaal and red as a mark of both power and purity. The contest Ek PERIOD ki kahani 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, Vikas Bagaria, 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 20^th October 2020.

The winner will receive a cash prize of INR 15,000 and an e-certificate. The second and third prizes are a cash prize of INR 10,000 and an e-certificate and INR 5,000 and an e-certificate, respectively. The contest will be judged by actor Sharib Hashmi, Director Imtiaz Ali’s daughter Ida Ali, and music artists Barbie Rajput and Rakesh Tiwari.

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.

(We got this information in a press release).