Hindustan Petroleum's safety message

The oil company has launched an on-ground activity with an aim to tell women especially in the rural areas about safety measures, health hazards and conservation.

Hindustan Petroleum has been running an on-ground activation for last three years titled Suraksha Sanchetna Abhiyaan (SSA) where it has been teaching safety measures to the women in rural areas.

Over the last 2 years of the SSA, the activity has reached out to almost 700 villages and engaged with over 8.5 million people with their crucial safety messages.

This year the brand organised a safety walk titled 'Har kadam suraksha ki aur'. It focuses on the theme of 'Conservation and Health Hazard' bringing out the safety issues that women need to understand and adapt.

The Suraksha Sanchetna Abhiyan (SSA) Safety Walk will be organized by HP Gas, across 500 small towns/villages across 9 states viz. Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, UP, Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and it aims to reach over 5 million households this year.

Initially it started as an activity of a Suraksha Sanchetna Mela for the women and the family. Women were especially invited for the Mela and shown a comedy act of a saas bahu serial "Suraksha ki Kasam" with the messages intrinsically built in for engagement. Post that they played competitive fun games that took them back to childhood but gave the messages of safety in an easy to remember manner. They also got the opportunity to win prizes and gifts on answering safety related questions and participated in signing a pledge for making safety a habit at home.

Executed by the activation arm of Leo Burnett, the brand did the 'Longest Safety Walk' called the "Har Kadam Suraksha ki Aur" activity where it took a group 20 people including lazium dancers, dholwalas, artists and a larger than life mascot of the Cylinder lovingly branded "Ji Haan" to the streets in the villages and engaged with the women in their own environment. Post showing them a street play a Q&A session was held and this left the women with branded useful gift items. The women also took the Suraksha pledge and worked on ensuring that they do the small things which will keep them and their families safe and healthy. This act is being carried out in 500 small towns, across 9 states in India.

In the first edition, the campaign leveraged the village mela format with participation from women folk. Following the encouraging response received, HPCL, in the second edition, addressed the men of the family too, to ensure they also followed safety rules and led the womenfolk to learn safe kitchen habits.

Seema Sood, director, events & PR, Leo Burnett, says, "Kitchens, the domain of women for centuries are neglected spaces as far as safety goes. Each woman prides herself on its upkeep and the cooking skills she has but there is not much she does as far as personal safety from LPG gas etc is required. This is an effort of HPCL to engage with her and talk to her on the simple care tips on safety, conservation and health concerns emanating from the use of fuels for cooking. Our job is to make each home safe- one kitchen at a time!"

Safety is the last thing on the minds of people particularly in rural India. There is a lack of care and priority given to safety habits at large and even more so when it concerns women!