Kolkata: Joy Personal Care, of RSH Global private limited has launched a campaign to help ensure the safety and sanitisation of one of the most marginalised & neglected communities during the pandemic. As a part of this initiative, brand has distributed over one lakh hygiene and personal care products to underprivileged transgender and sex workers over a five day drive in Kolkata.
Shot during the distribution drive, the campaign video takes an emotional route to highlight the pains of neglected sex workers & underprivileged transgender in the society; and how Joy makes a humble offering to ensure their safety during the pandemic. The poetry in the voice over is written by a renowned poet Srijato Bandopadhyay and the voice is given by the award-winning elocutionist Brototi Bandopadhyay.
This integrated campaign incorporates a five-day on-ground distribution drive and a campaign television commercial which is now on-air across Kolkata. The campaign will also be amplified on social media to create awareness about the hardships faced by these marginalized communities and how Joy’s humble effort are helping them in the unprecedented time.
While people in India are doing everything they can for the welfare of the underprivileged groups amidst the pandemic, sex workers and transgenders are amongst the worst hit and in need of hygiene and personal care kits more than ever. Their source of income has largely ceased as a result of social distancing and lockdown measures put in place making it difficult for them to make their ends meet.
Additionally, the residents of the red-light area in the city live in smaller rooms with about ten to twelve people making it difficult to practice social distancing. They also share a common bathroom which often does not have adequate water supply or appropriate sanitisation norms. Hence, providing them an access to personal hygiene products to help them maintaining sanitization is of utmost importance for this community.
The personal care company recently launched ‘Joy Pure & Safe’, its range of hygiene products and wanted to make a humble offering by providing personal sanitisation products to them. For the same, the brand partnered with renowned NGOs – Sombhabona and Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee who have been doing a commendable job for the welfare of sex workers & underprivileged transgenders.
Sunil Agarwal, Chairman, RSH Global Private limited, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has given a chance to all corporates to showcase their solidarity and inclusiveness, but we realised that unfortunately the most vulnerable members of society have been largely ignored. These people are participating members of the economy, invisible, unfortunate and marginalised though they may be. Times of crisis do not exclude them: they hit them harder. The most vulnerable in society are always most easily ignored and forgotten, we wanted to make a small yet significant change in their hygiene conditions by distributing these products & we will continue to extend support in future.”
Poulomi Roy, Chief Marketing Officer, RSH Global Private limited, said, “Sex workers and underprivileged transgenders are among the marginalised groups in our society. While sex workers have lost business as a result of the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns; underprivileged transgender has also been severely financially compromised. The Covid-19 pandemic has created a catastrophic health and economic crisis for them.
Therefore, we at Joy, launched a humble initiative aimed at improving the personal hygiene conditions of the sex workers and transgender community to support them during the pandemic. Our products will provide an essential foundation for community health and hygiene.”
Representative at Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, said, “We are extremely happy to join hands with Joy Personal Care in their endeavour to spread awareness on the importance of hygiene in the fight against Covid-19, especially amongst the marginalised sex workers and underprivileged transgenders. We wish more brands come ahead with similar initiatives.”
Representative at Sombhabona, said, “We are delighted to associate with Joy Personal Care in this initiative to reach out to thousands of people in the transgender community at the time of crisis by providing personal care hygiene products. This is a wonderful addition in the transgender care and contribution support work that we’ve been doing for years. Hope other brands realise the importance of the welfare for the transgender community.”
