May 28 2020, Bangalore: Paree, a young Indian homegrown sanitary napkin brand has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene by positioning sanitary pads as essential and to make them accessible to as many women as possible especially those who need it the most. Through its #SheFirst #PadsAreEssential campaign, Paree started a dialogue around how women are the backbone of our society yet their needs tend to take a backseat. It encouraged women to put their needs and hygiene First. The Company strongly believes that it is time that every woman starts prioritizing her needs and begins to focus on her menstrual health and hygiene, without guilt, without shame
Taking this conversation further and in keeping with the brand’s commitment towards #SheFirst, on the occasion of World Menstrual Hygiene Day, Paree, in a first-ever Human Resource landmark, announces Period Leave for all its female employees.
Paree’s #SheFirst #PadsAreEssential campaign was about her home while this leg extends to the workplace. Office is where she spends most of her time. With this announcement, Paree addresses the issue of emotional and physical discomfort that often accompanies menstruation. The brand has always been vocal about real issues that women face during their periods, be it Heavy Flow and now Cramps and PMS with this.
Almost 40% of Paree employees are women with women making 80% of the corporate staff and will benefit from this policy, as this one day of Period Leave per month will allow women to take it a little easy if they are having a rough period, and only if they choose to do so. This is not a mandatory leave and the choice to avail it or not is completely upto the employee. Moreover, this policy is not just limited to corporate office staff but is also extended to female staff working in all other verticals & units. The managerial and corporate staff can avail work from home whereas it is a paid leave for factory and on ground sales staff.
To make the announcement of period leave come alive, Paree created a video titled “Keep It Real #PareePeriodLeave” capturing different reactions of their employees.
This move is also a progressive step towards keeping it real when it comes to period related issues like the physical or emotional discomfort that a woman might experience during her periods and how the corporate sector can band together to make-workplaces more conducive for their women employees. Interventions like period leaves, sanitary pad dispensers and menstrual hygiene medical kits at the workplace are steps in the right direction. Menstrual discomfort and hygiene are real issues and it is time that we start acknowledging it.
Sahil Dharia – CEO & Founder, Paree, proudly spoke, “I advocate Period Leave for our female workforce, those who want to avail of it, that is. It is a choice that we as an organization will accord to our women employees. Women are the nucleus of our socio-economic environment – and their mental and physical health should be an absolute priority. The Period Leave is a call to action for Paree, as an organization, in order to initiate a change in thinking across industries and sectors. We want to platform the larger, unspoken issue of menstrual health and hygiene of women at work and how we as a society need to start taking cognizance of it and start adopting measures to help our women workforce navigate it with ease.”
Paree is a women-centric brand. The brand’s overall workforce comprises 40% women with 80% women as Corporate office staff, the CEO’s direct management team includes 64% of women. The brand is committed to raise and address the larger social issue of menstrual health and hygiene which impacts women at work.
About #SheFirst #PadsAreEssential Advocacy campaign
Paree launched the campaign #SheFirst #PadsAreEssential (#yehbhijaroorihai) which focused on menstrual hygiene and the importance of hygiene products to maintain menstrual health in a dignified manner, as women are more susceptible to infections during the time of a pandemic. Paree took up the cause to reach out to women and distributed close to 2,00,000 sanitary pads across cities in India. Over the last two months, Paree has devoted itself to advocating this cause by associating with various government and private organizations like CII-IWN, Rasoi-On-Wheels, Punjab Police, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights- the Govt of NCT and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, and has resiliently distributed sanitary pads to indigent women across states – Delhi, Gurugram, Punjab, Rajasthan, MP and others.
About Paree
Paree is a women-centric brand, ‘of the women, by the women and for the women’. It believes in highlighting the importance around menstrual issues which will help in ensuring menstrual hygiene for all as an essential right while at the same time, breaking taboos around menstruation in our society.