Paree Sanitary Pads, a homegrown brand by Soothe Healthcare has been actively working with real life women champions toward prioritizing menstrual health for women in India. With their #ChampionForChampions campaign, the brand celebrates and supports the sportsmanship of these young athletes who are passionate and poised to make it big in their respective sports.
MI speaks with Shruti Kapoor, Senior Manager – Marketing, Soothe Healthcare. Shruti underlines the brand’s idea behind the campaign and their other initiatives.
Excerpts here:
Q) What was the idea behind the campaign Champion for Champions?
Shruti: The Champion for Champions is more than a campaign for us; like an initiative. It’s not a recent campaign. We started it almost two years back during the pandemic. At that time, we associated with 20,000 female police officers. The thought behind this was to celebrate these women and their contribution who works tirelessly for society. These real-life champions who have a lot of potential need a little support. This collaboration was to highlight the importance of menstrual hygiene.
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This year, we were approached by sporting ethos. As a brand, Paree believes in supporting young girls in sports. These sports are not regular, but very niche, like para-athlete, rugby, rifle shooting, and more. We were very inspired by these girls and wanted to support these champions. And Paree as a brand proposition has been a heavy flow champion. So we thought to be the champion behind these real-life champions.
Q) Any specific motive to bring all different sports players?
Shruti: Paree has always supported female sports persons. We had associated with Badminton star, Saina Nehwal in the past. And she is still associated with Paree. This time we wanted to highlight niche sports; not regular sports like cricket, badminton, and tennis. Because it is important for people to know about other sports as well, there are a lot of representation. The payers put in their hard work and grit to make their way for the particular sport. So it’s important for us that these players get support from us.
Q) Menstruation talk is still taboo in our country. Do you think that is going to fade away anytime soon?
Shruti: I really hope so. But these changes would happen at a societal level which is relatively slow. In India, we have treated menstruation as a topic that is talked about in a hushed tone. I think it will slowly lead to a shift with the government aiding in openly talking about it. Our honorable Prime Minister, a couple of years back, in his Independence Day speech addressed the issue and pleaded with women to prioritize their menstrual health. In cinema halls also, there are government ads on menstrual wellness. Various brands are now talking openly about the importance of menstrual hygiene. Currently, a majority of women, don’t have access to menstrual hygiene. This is where all of ours, as an industry effort comes into play. The more we talk about it, the better awareness it creates.
It is an important subject right now, as 23% of our girls drop out of school once they start menstruating. Mostly because they don’t have facilities available for them, families make these girls leave the schools. It is unfortunate, and it’s really a cost of opportunity here. If women must be a part of society, the shift needs to happen where we talk about menstruation openly.
Q) Do you think men talking about menstruation can impact the whole thing?
Shruti: Absolutely. The more men become a part of the larger conversation about menstrual health, the more normalized it will become in society. We had an interesting campaign that we did on Valentine’s Day. We asked men to show their women Paree walla care. Every couple celebrates Valentine’s Day with roses and chocolates. But do they know their partner’s period date, or do they pamper them on those days? The idea was to make men understand that real love is when you show your partner when she needs it. And if your woman is comfortable talking about menstruation and all about it with you.
Q) Could you tell us more about other initiatives Paree had done?
Shruti: There’s another initiative that we have launched named PareeVartan. It’s about raising awareness, creating impact, and then empowering women. These are the three pillars on which PareeVartan was based. Under this initiative, we have visited different schools and colleges where we take menstrual hygiene sessions. These sessions are about using sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene correctly. We especially target government and underdeveloped schools in different parts of the country. These girls need much more education about menstrual hygiene. We just don’t distribute pads in these places, but we also provide them with proper sessions. These sessions are conducted by our in-house menstrual hygiene experts, who are certified to take these sessions. Last year in December, we adopted 100 schools in Bihar. The objective is to take care of the girls’ menstrual hygiene in those schools. This initiative has become big now, and we have expanded in UP, MP, and Rajasthan.
Another initiative was the collaboration with Dr. Kiran Bedi’s foundation, India Vision Foundation. Here we took menstrual hygiene sessions in the female presence after every quarter. We also provide sanitary pads here. The idea is to take it to the grassroots level because that’s where the real change and impacts are going to come around.
Q) Could you please elaborate on how you adopted a school?
Shruti: We have our on-ground sales team. They get us in touch with schools in some villages or outskirts of a city. We distribute sanitary pads and keep enough of them in the school so the girls can use them for the next 3-4 months. Then we provide proper sessions also.
Q) What are your views on the carbon footprint of sanitary pads? How is Paree working towards lessening the footprints?
Shruti: In India, only 20% of the females use sanitary pads, whereas the rest don’t even have access to it. Women are still using unhygienic means like clothes or in some cases, leaves. India is the cervical cancer capital of the world. So, yes, it is essential to maintain a lesser carbon footprint and pads are non-biodegradable products. But at the same time, we need to understand that a sanitary pad is something that a woman needs to live her life normally. Why do we expect only women to suffer because sanitary pads are contributing to carbon footprint? While we can work towards other options which are bio-degradable like menstrual cups. At the same time, just think about a woman who never even used a pad, will she be able to use a menstrual cup? Different cultural biases come against menstrual cups. In some cases, women tell us if the woman can still be a virgin because they think only married women can use menstrual cups. In fact, there are a lot of things that are worse than a pad and creating humongous carbon footprints. Sanitary pads are just for five days a month for a woman, but it impacts her entire life. So I think we should give her access to sanitary pads first, then later as she grows with it she can switch or decide on bio-degradable options.
We have been continuously doing our part to lessen the carbon footprint with our research and development happening at our end. We have menstrual cups as well. We are even working on the clean disposal of sanitary pads. We have been responsibly disposing of 50 metric tons of this waste. We have been recognized by the government also for doing so.
Q) What kind of impact have you seen in the industry after the pandemic?
Shruti: The pandemic has impacted the category as a whole in a good way. The pandemic brought up the forefront of importance of hygiene. Even if we had the knowledge, how actively we do things we have been taught or learned. Women started taking care of themselves, taking note of how to keep menstrual hygiene, and how to responsibly dispose of it. So the industry is growing while the focus is on hygiene.
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Q) What is your digital presence when speaking about campaigns?
Shruti: As a brand, we always wanted to be present where our audience lies. We have always believed in 360-degree marketing. In this way, we can build brand awareness and, at the same time, reinforce what the brand stands for. We have a lot of younger audiences who have moved largely on to digital. We are a part of digital media to talk to our audience. Because digital is the only medium that is two-way communication, especially social media. We can engage with our audience. We have now started going to new-age digital platforms like Sharechat and Moj. Here we can talk to our consumers in the language that they want. Last year, we did a campaign in Sharechat where we communicated our brand with small influencers in Bhojpuri and Hindi. We received an amazing response from them. For our Champion for Champions campaign, Janhvi Kapoor, our brand ambassador posted a video because she was very excited about the association with athletes. After that, we heard a lot of conversations about it.
Q) Future plans and programs?
Shruti: The organization is growing exponentially. Paree is now a 100 crore brand. The organization, Soothe Healthcare, is now a 250 crore brand. We have crossed 200 crores in a short span of time. So the plans for the future are exciting, but I can’t give you the details right now. We have a good product and a good face as a brand ambassador, a youth icon, Janhvi Kapoor. We also have a good media presence. So we are very excited about our future plans.
Q)Any message for the young girls out there?
Shruti: Live your life without holding back. Be true to yourself and always work towards achieving your dreams. As a woman, if we set our eyes on the goal, we are very dedicated. So, just walk towards it and make your dreams come true.
